Both Friday practice sessions have been cut to one hour in 2021, instead of the usual 90 minutes each. Alpine’s returning two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was the first car out on track to set a laptime in FP1, which was topped by Verstappen, and the Dutchman then repeated the feat in FP2. 

Bahrain Grand Prix FP1 results: Verstappen fastest from Bottas

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1'31.394
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1'31.692	0.298
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	1'31.897	0.503
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1'31.921	0.527
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1'31.993	0.599
6	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1'32.071	0.677
7	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1'32.195	0.801
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1'32.366	0.972
9	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	1'32.434	1.040
10	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1'32.786	1.392
11	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	1'33.134	1.740
12	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	1'33.157	1.763
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1'33.233	1.839
14	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1'33.329	1.935
15	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1'33.528	2.134
16	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	1'33.872	2.478
17	George Russell	Williams	1'34.127	2.733
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	1'34.340	2.946
19	Mick Schumacher	Haas	1'34.501	3.107
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	1'34.975	3.581
View full results

What happened in Free Practice 1?

FP1 started well for McLaren, which held an early 1-2 with Lando Norris and new signing Daniel Ricciardo. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez took over at the top for a moment, before Lewis Hamilton went fastest on 1m32.844s.

His teammate Valtteri Bottas went to P1 briefly, before Max Verstappen rose to the head of the times. Hamilton pushed again on the same set of soft tyres and lowered the bar to 1m32.214s.

Just after the halfway mark, Norris jumped to the top of the times on 1m31.897s – three tenths faster than Hamilton. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) vaulted to second and third, ahead of Hamilton.

In the closing 10 minutes of the session, Bottas improved to P1 on 1m31.692s, as Hamilton suffered a scruffy end to his lap and couldn’t even match Norris.

Verstappen then laid down the gauntlet with a lap of 1m31.394s, setting fastest overall sectors for the first two-thirds of the circuit – even getting a tow from an Alfa as he opened his run.

Bottas stayed second by 0.298s, ahead of Norris and Hamilton. Leclerc was fifth, from Perez, Gasly, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Ricciardo and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi.

Bahrain Grand Prix FP2 results: Verstappen fastest from Norris

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1'30.847
2	Lando Norris	McLaren	1'30.942	0.095
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1'31.082	0.235
4	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1'31.127	0.280
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1'31.218	0.371
6	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	1'31.230	0.383
7	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1'31.294	0.447
8	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1'31.393	0.546
9	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1'31.483	0.636
10	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1'31.503	0.656
11	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1'31.601	0.754
12	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1'31.612	0.765
13	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1'31.740	0.893
14	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	1'31.769	0.922
15	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	1'31.770	0.923
16	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	1'31.862	1.015
17	George Russell	Williams	1'32.331	1.484
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas	1'33.297	2.450
19	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	1'33.400	2.553
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	1'33.449	2.602
View full results

What happened in Free Practice 2?

In FP2, the medium tyres were used by the majority of teams at the start, with Verstappen setting the early pace at 1m31.842s – as both Mercedes drivers had their first flying lap times deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 4.

At his second attempt, Bottas beat that by 0.339s to take over the top spot after 10 minutes, before Hamilton produced 1m31.261s to grab P1.

Kimi Raikkonen suffered a half spin at Turn 2, swiping the front wing from his Alfa Romeo against the barriers.

As teams switched to soft tyres and lower fuel in the middle of the session, Hamilton lowered his fastest time to 1m31.082s despite a poor first sector, with Sainz only 0.045s slower. Norris went quickest on 1m30.942s, shortly before Verstappen took P1 away for good with 1m30.847s.

Verstappen ended his session with a new-medium-tyred long run along with the majority of the others. That meant the order stayed static over the last 20 minutes, in the order Verstappen, Norris, Hamilton, Sainz and Bottas. Ricciardo was sixth, ahead of leading rookie Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Gasly and Perez.

Alonso could only manage 16th and 15th places across the two sessions on his return.