The winter break finally came to an end on Thursday at the Bahrain international Circuit as the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season began with two free practice sessions that created more questions than answers.

Heading into the day, many were expecting the gap between Oracle Red Bull Racing and the rest of the pack to be big, but both Max Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez appeared to struggle for pace and were unable to break into the top five in either session.

The running in the opening session was far from representative of what could be expected across the remainder of the weekend, taking place as it did in the afternoon sunshine whereas the important Qualifying session on Friday and the race on Saturday will both take place at twilight and into darkness.

Ricciardo Tops the Opening Session after Soft Tyre Run

Daniel Ricciardo was the surprise pacesetter for the opening session on Thursday, the Australian utilising Pirelli’s soft tyre to give the newly renamed Visa CashApp RB Team an early season boost.

The majority of the runs across the field were performed on the medium C4 tyre, but the top four places were locked out by drivers using the softest rubber, and Ricciardos’ 1:32.869 just 0.032 seconds ahead of McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris.

The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri, starting his second season in Formula 1 after an impressive rookie campaign in 2023, ended third fastest, while the second RB of Yuki Tsunoda placed fourth.

The fastest medium shod runner was Fernando Alonso, the Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team driver setting a best time just 0.324 seconds down on Ricciardo’s best, while reigning World Champion Verstappen was only sixth, the Dutchman very vocal about the performance of his RB20 throughout the session.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were seventh and ninth fastest respectively for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, either side of Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, while Valtteri Bottas placed tenth, the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber driver unable to improve his time on soft tyres at the end of the session despite two attempts at doing so.

Carlos Sainz Jr., who will leave Ferrari at the end of 2024 after the announcement that Hamilton will be joining the Maranello-based team next season, was eleventh fastest, while Perez was twelfth in the second Red Bull, just under two-tenths of a second behind team-mate Verstappen but six places worse off.

Bahrain Free Practice 1 Results

POS.	NO.	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Visa CashApp RB	1:32.869
2	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:32.901
3	81	Oscar Piastri	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:33.113
4	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Visa CashApp RB	1:33.183
5	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team	1:33.193
6	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:33.238
7	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:33.251
8	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:33.268
9	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:33.302
10	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber	1:33.354
11	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:33.385
12	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:33.413
13	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1:33.583
14	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team	1:33.868
15	24	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber	1:33.923
16	2	Logan Sargeant	USA	Williams Racing	1:34.213
17	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:34.807
18	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:35.144
19	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	MoneyGram Haas F1 Team	1:37.477
20	27	Nico Hülkenberg	GER	MoneyGram Haas F1 Team	1:37.938

Hamilton Leads Mercedes 1-2 in Second Practice

As darkness took over in Bahrain, the lap times tumbled on Thursday evening, with the soft tyre finally getting used by everyone across the field.  At the end of the hour’s running, it was a Mercedes one-two at the head of the pack, with Hamilton ending ahead of team-mate Russell.

Once again, all eyes were on Red Bull and where they would be in relation to the rest, but Verstappen and Perez once again appeared to struggle, and it was Mercedes who ended the day at the top of the timing screens.

Hamilton set the overall best time of the day with a 1:30.374, just over two tenths of a second ahead of Russell, while Alonso was again well placed for Aston Martin in third, the veteran Spaniard less than a tenth of a second behind the second Mercedes.

Sainz was an encouraging fourth for Ferrari, which will give them some confidence that they have a competitive car in 2024, while Piastri continued his good first day in fifth in the leading McLaren. 

Verstappen continued to lack some pace as the Dutchman ended up only sixth, while the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team will take encouragement from the pace of Nico Hülkenberg, the German ending his evening with the seventh fastest time having been well adrift of the pace earlier in the day.

Lance Stroll was eighth in the second Aston Martin, while completing the top ten were Leclerc’s Ferrari and Perez’s Red Bull, just ahead of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and first practice session topper Ricciardo.

The first half of the session was dedicated to soft tyre runs, while the second part saw long runs take over as teams and drivers worked on race pace and simulations.

Bahrain Free Practice 2 Results

POS.	NO.	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:30.374
2	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:30.580
3	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team	1:30.660
4	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:30.769
5	81	Oscar Piastri	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:30.784
6	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:30.851
7	27	Nico Hülkenberg	GER	MoneyGram Haas F1 Team	1:30.884
8	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team	1:30.891
9	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:31.113
10	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:31.115
11	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1:31.333
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Visa CashApp RB	1:31.516
13	2	Logan Sargeant	USA	Williams Racing	1:31.715
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	MoneyGram Haas F1 Team	1:31.764
15	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Visa CashApp RB	1:31.881
16	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:31.951
17	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber	1:32.001
18	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:32.027
19	24	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber	1:32.048
20	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:32.608