Red Bull and Max Verstappen start fastest at Formula 1's season-opening Bahrain GP; Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas second and Lewis Hamilton fourth; Promising starts for McLaren and Ferrari; Second practice live on Sky Sports F1 at 3pm
Friday 26 March 2021 14:45, UK
Max Verstappen gave an early glimpse of the pace Mercedes believe makes Red Bull favourites for the season-opening Bahrain GP by topping the first practice session of Formula 1 2021.
In the first of the sport's shortened 60-minute Friday practice sessions, Verstappen posted the quickest time of 1:31.394 in the closing minutes of the hour under the blazing desert sunshine.
Valtteri Bottas was second fastest but 0.3s back in the lead Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton half a second adrift in fourth.
McLaren, meanwhile, made an encouraging start to their weekend with Lando Norris fourth in their new Mercedes-powered challenger which showed promise at testing, also in Bahrain, a fortnight ago.
Charles Leclerc was fifth for a Ferrari team aiming to make a big step forwards back towards the front this year, with new Red Bull signing Sergio Perez sixth in the second RB16B.
"That's a big thumbs up from me so far for the shorter practice sessions," said Sky F1's Martin Brundle after a busy hour of track action.
Practice Two, under the more representative qualifying and race conditions of the evening floodlights, starts at 3pm.
Pierre Gasly was seventh in an AlphaTauri car that also impressed in testing, with Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top nine on his McLaren debut.
Neither of the teams which have been rebranded over the winter - Aston Martin, formerly Racing Point, and Alpine, formerly Renault - started the weekend in the top 10.
That meant the two team's respective ex-champion signings Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso finished 12th and 16th fastest respectively, although Alpine were known to be focusing on aero runs.
Friday's session represents 39-year-old Alonso's first race weekend sessions in F1 since 2018.
F1's 2021 three rookies - AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda and Haas team-mates Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin - made their practice debuts as Grand Prix drivers, with the former unsurprisingly the quickest of the trio.
