Ferrari rebounds from poor showing in Australia.
SAKIR, Bahrain—March 29th—Many fans wondered why the Scuderia Ferrari team was beaten so badly at the Australia Grand Prix two weeks ago. But Charles LeClerc and Sebastian Vettel proved that performance may have been a one-time affair. Both drivers dominated Friday’s free practice sessions at the Sakir International Circuit in preparation for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Photo courtesy Scuderia Ferrari
LeClerc took the opening session at two-tenths of a second ahead of his German teammate. Under the evening lights, Vettel returned the favor with a 1:28:846 best time of the day–two seconds better than Leclerc’s earlier go.
Both Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were behind the Ferrari’s all day, with the Briton taking third best and his Finnish teammate fourth.
One of the big surprises of the evening session was the fifth-place finish of Nico Hulkenberg in his Renault–which in comparison to Daniel Ricciardo (who finished the session in 15th place)–shows that the car can do well when it has an opportunity to do so.
While Hulkenberg was the surprise, the Red Bull of Max Verstappen was not a factor among the top. The Dutchman took a disappointing sixth place. Like Hulkenberg, Verstappen didn’t have a teammate join him in the top ten.
Unlike Renault and Red Bull Racing, the American Rich Energy Haas F1 Team had both of their drivers in the top ten. Kevin Magnussen finished seventh and Romain Grosjean took ninth. F1 returnee Dani Kvyat finished 10th in his Toro Rosso.
There weren’t many incidents in either session, but several did stand out. Kimi Raikkonen and Vettel both had spins in the second session–and for the same reason. Each driver was coming out of the pits and lost their grip at the turn because of cold tires.
In the opening day event, Hulkenberg and Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovanazzi touched wheels at turn seven, sending both cars off the track.
The weather on Friday was clear all day, but the forecast for Saturday qualifying is a 60% chance of rain. If it rains, that could affect the grid order on race day.
