Bahrain GP Friday practice
Live Text
Sort by
Twitter
Giovinazzi did wave at Hulkenberg for blocking him before getting clobbered by the Renault - but that doesn't exactly tip the blame scale towards him.
Information
Final order: 1 Leclerc, 2 Vettel, 3 Bottas, 4 Hamilton, 5 Verstappen, 6 Gasly, 7 Sainz, 8 Hulkenberg, 9 Kvyat, 10 Raikkonen, 11 Ricciardo, 12 Magnussen, 13 Albon, 14 Perez, 15 Norris, 16 Giovinazzi, 17 Grosjean, 18 Stroll, 19 Russell, 20 Kubica.
No major damage to either of those cars, but race direction and the FIA stewards certainly have some cases to look at from this practice session, should they feel like it, which they may not.
"I have no idea what he was playing at," Renault tells Hulkenberg re: Giovinazzi. In the real world, rather than the world of F1 team radio, Giovinazzi was almost certainly not at fault.
Checkered flag
Chequered flag's out now.
Crash
And replays show a major, honest-to-God collision between Hulkenberg and Giovinazzi, as the Italian tried to get around the Renault!
Crash
Grosjean is driving around very slowly with a busted front wing, the right side of which has collapsed.
Twitter
Three minutes left on the clock, Ricciardo has just posted the first green sector (S1) we've seen in a fair bit - but it didn't amount to a quicker lap in the end.
Radio Comms
"Talk to me." "Yeah, all good mate." is the entirety of the short discussion on the Williams team radio after that spin.
Yellow flag
Russell has had a spin coming out of Turn 3.
Replays show Raikkonen being pushed off the track by a cruising Albon exiting Turn 8. He's had an eventful session.
Less than 10 minutes left on the clock, and it looks like we're heading towards a pretty comfortable Ferrari 1-2 in FP1.
None of them do in the end.
Albon, Perez and Stroll flash up personal-best sectors, so could move up in the midfield battle.
Twitter
Looks like we're into race runs at the moment so don't expect any imminent changes to the status quo - although Hamilton could yet speed up, having ended his initial soft-tyre run a bit on the early side.
Just over 17 minutes remaining as one of the top-tier cars returns to the circuit - it's Bottas, son the same set of softs he used for his quickest lap.
Perez moves up to 14th place, demoting Norris, Giovinazzi and Grosjean.
Stroll has finally posted a representative lap, but it's only good enough for P18, 3.5s off the pace. Mind, he's only a tenth down on Perez - but Perez hasn't done a proper second run yet.
Twitter
It has emerged that F1 is considering a four-session qualifying format for 2020. The previous qualifying revamp didn't work so well, but this actually sounds neat. 
Sainz is top of the midfield, 1.598s slower than Leclerc - but there is no clear split between A-class and B-class right now. The Spaniard is much closer to the Red Bulls than even his teammate Norris.
Information
Current order: 1 Leclerc, 2 Vettel, 3 Bottas, 4 Hamilton, 5 Verstappen, 6 Gasly, 7 Sainz, 8 Hulkenberg, 9 Kvyat, 10 Raikkonen, 11 Ricciardo, 12 Magnussen, 13 Albon, 14 Norris, 15 Giovinazzi, 16 Grosjean, 17 Perez, 18 Russell, 19 Kubica, 20 Stroll.
Replays show Russell locking his front-left tyre into Turn 10, and thus not making the corner.
Less than 30 minutes to go, and we're still to see a proper laptime from Lance Stroll - who hasn't been back out after his early spin.
Leclerc's second push lap on this set is five tenths slower than his first, but that would still be enough to leave him well clear of the Silver Arrows.
Hamilton looks to have abandoned his current soft-tyre run after just one attempt, while Bottas is still lapping - but not making any inroads on the Ferrari cars.
Speaking of Sainz, he's your quickest midfield runner at the moment, ahead of Hulkenberg, Kvyat and Ricciardo.
Radio Comms
There's some on-track drama between Raikkonen and Sainz, as the Spaniard blocks the Alfa Romeo. "The McLaren almost hit me on the side," Raikkonen reports.
Early days in this race weekend, but that is a serious statement from Ferrari. Leclerc could've gone quicker still - he had some traffic in the third sector.
Stopwatch
Leclerc goes top, 1m30.354s. He's almost a second up on Bottas.
And Leclerc might be even faster - purple in S1, purple in S2...
Stopwatch
Vettel goes top, 1m30.617s, seven tenths quicker than Bottas.
So, Vettel and Leclerc are pushing on softs now, and their sectors look, to put it bluntly, mega.
Replays show that Hamilton went well wide at the final corner, which is what probably cost him in the head-to-head with Bottas.
Hamilton is quickest of all in sector two, but can only take second at the end of the lap, 0.273s slower than Bottas.
Giovinazzi has split Norris and Grosjean in eighth, before Ricciardo pushes all three down a spot with a very good lap - just a second slower than Bottas.
Hamilton is kicking off his first push lap on softs, but he's two tenths down on Bottas in the first sector alone.
By: Geoff Creighton
Published:
Lap:
