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George Russell tops FP1 in his first official Formula 1 session for Mercedes

George Russell tops FP1 in his first official Formula 1 session for Mercedes

04-12-2020 15:00
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George Russell has topped his first-ever Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend session. The Brit recorded the fastest time of a 0:54.546 on the soft tyres. After a battle with his new rivals, it was the Mercedes debut driver who came out on top. His teammate for the weekend, finished in P4 behind both Red Bull Racing drivers. 

In the midfield battle, AlphaTauri and Renault lead the way. With lap times under 60 seconds, the gap between all drivers is small. 

If FP1 is anything to go by, we can expect a very exciting weekend on the outer loop of the Bahrain International Circuit. The drivers at the top of the timesheets were alternating regularly and the midfield aren't far behind the leaders. 

The two rookie drivers, Jack Aitken (Williams) and Pietro Fittipaldi (Haas) settled in quickly. Fittipaldi was close to fellow Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. Despite Aitken finishing in P20, he was also close to his teammate. 

How it happened 

Carlos Sainz set first lap time around the Bahrain outer loop. It was a 1:05.259. Just one attempt later, the Spaniard had cut this time down to 0:56.631 proving just how short the lap time can be. 

The first of the 'rookie drivers' to make a lap was Fittipaldi. He first set a 60-second lap, before dropping that down to 0:58.313. Around 15 minutes into the session, Russell recorded his first lap in the Mercedes car. He posted a 0:56.899 and was quick on the radio to ask whether his DAS usage was correct. 

Daniel Ricciardo placed an early marker down for Renault but was quickly pushed down the timesheets when Bottas and the two Red Bull drivers came out of the pits.  Despite this, both Renault and AlphaTauri looked strong in the opening exchanges. To give Renault extra confidence, McLaren and Racing Point were struggling to keep up with the top 10. 

Russell goes fastest

With around 45 minutes of the session remaining, Mercedes put the soft tyres on Russell. With the red stripped tyre, Russell went fastest. He beat his teammate by around 0.100 seconds. 

Bottas tried to reply straight away but aborted his first lap in the first sector. Bottas didn't opt for a 'charge lap' and followed with another fast push. But he pushed too hard and ran wide again. 

While all the attention was on the two Mercedes drivers, Verstappen came out of the pits for a push lap on the soft tyres. The Dutchman took his Red Bull car to the top of the timesheets in one attempt. Albon spent a short time at the top, but Russell returned to P1 with his second run on soft tyres.