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Formula 1 Bahrain GP

F1 Bahrain GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 and Qualifying

Saturday's Formula 1 action from the Bahrain International Circuit

Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari F1-75

After two extensive pre-season tests split between Barcelona and Bahrain, the new generation of F1 starts this weekend with the season opener Bahrain GP.

Friday practice saw Max Verstappen and Red Bull end FP2 on top ahead of Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr, while Mercedes endured a tough opening day with George Russell fourth, over half a second off Verstappen’s lap time, and Lewis Hamilton down in ninth place.

Sebastian Vettel has been ruled out after testing positive for COVID-19, with Aston Martin reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg taking on the super-sub role which he undertook for the team on three occasions in 2020.

Daniel Ricciardo is back in action for McLaren after recovering from his own positive COVID-19 test which forced him to miss the Bahrain pre-season test last week.

FP3 starts at 12pm GMT (3pm local time) and will run for one hour, with qualifying taking place at 3pm GMT (6pm local time) and will also run for one hour.

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Albon has opted to go early again in this session and is on the softs for Williams
Lights green
Q2 is go! Time to cut 15 down to 10.

The biggest shock of that session is Ricciardo dropping out, but how much of that could be put down to the Australian missing the entire Bahrain pre-season test last week due to COVID?

Checkered flag

The chequered flag is out and Zhou jumps ahead of Tsunoda with his final lap to go P13. The Q1 dropouts are: P16 Tsunoda, P17 Hulkenberg, P18 Ricciardo, P19 Stroll, P20 Latifi.

Norris puts himself in a comfortable position by moving up to P6, as Tsunoda climbs to P15.
17 drivers on track with the top three of Leclerc, Sainz and Verstappen confident of their Q2 progression.
Two minutes to go in Q1 so it is already now or never time for those in the bottom five. Norris is the driver on the bubble in P15 with a two-tenths buffer to Stroll.
Hamilton goes P5, 0.8s off the top, with Russell P10 over a second off Leclerc's leading effort. Further back, Stroll, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Tsunoda and Latifi are in the Q1 drop zone.
Everyone except the Mercedes pair have set lap times so we'll wait for those two before giving a run down on the opening Q1 efforts.
Stopwatch
And now it is a Ferrari 1-2, with Leclerc putting in a 1m31.471s to head Sainz by 0.096s. Ferrari power looking very good so far.
Stopwatch
Scratch that, Bottas is second fastest in the Alfa Romeo just 0.010s off Verstappen.
Stopwatch

Perez slots into second place 0.474s off his team-mate, until Magnussen goes second fastest with a 1m32.286s. That Haas looks strong!

Stopwatch
Verstappen gives it a "beat that" lap with a 1m31.909s - over a second quicker than Gasly's earlier effort.
Stopwatch
Plenty of cars on track now, as Norris goes second fastest with a 1m33.113s. Ricciardo with a so-so lap with a 1m33.603.
Gasly gives us the first early leading time of 1m33.016s, half a second quicker than Tsunoda. AlphaTauri really struggled in the colder conditions in FP2 yesterday so they'll be hoping that's solved now.
Albon and Latifi pit before completing their first timed effort, so potentially a bit of final tweaking before going for it properly in Q1.
Both Williams and AlphaTauri drivers are out on track early. Albon and Latifi on the mediums, Tsunoda and Gasly on the softs.
Lights green
Here we go for Q1!
Quick reminder in case you've been unable to keep up with Bahrain GP action so far this weekend, Vettel is absent after a positive COVID-19 test with Hulkenberg stepping in as super-sub at Aston Martin.
Excluding filming days, F1 teams have had 51 hours of track time across two pre-season tests and Bahrain GP practice to prepare for this qualifying session. No pressure.
Both Ferrari-powered customer teams Alfa Romeo and Haas have also looked quick in practice, but is it genuine? And what can the rest produce? We'll find out over the next hour-and-a-bit.
Advantage appears to be with Verstappen and Red Bull having topped FP2 and FP3, with Leclerc and Ferrari close behind, but none of them will rule out what Mercedes might pull off given the glimpses of pace it showed earlier.

All the focus between FP3 and qualifying has been on the FIA's report into last year's Abu Dhabi GP finale and the repercussions from it, which rather juxtaposes the hyping up of the first competitive session of the new F1 era.

After that incredibly short breather, who is ready for the first F1 qualifying session of 2022? I thought so, Q1 starts in just under 20 minutes.
Amid all that excitement, there's now just over 40 minutes to go until qualifying starts...
And here's the full story on the FIA's plan to introduce a sporting director to oversee regulations in F1: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/fia-to-appoint-new-f1-sporting-director-to-oversee-regulations/9136068/
Here's the full story on how the FIA's new 'VAR' system, which it's calling the Remote Operations Centre, will work: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/fia-explains-how-var-system-will-work-in-f1/9136026/?nrt=54

The FIA will appoint a new Formula 1 sporting director to oversee the regulations in the wake of the Abu Dhabi controversy at the end of last season. No appointment has been made for the new role, but the steps that will be taken to recruit someone have been approved.

We'll have the full report up on the website shortly, including reaction and analysis from our team of journalists on-site in Bahrain.
Here's the full story from Jonathan Noble on the FIA's report into the Abu Dhabi safety car controversy, which states that axed race director Michael Masi "acted in good faith" but "human error lead to the fact that not all cars were allowed to un-lap themselves": https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/fias-abu-dhabi-gp-f1-report-says-masi-acted-in-good-faith/9135158/
The FIA has explained that the Remote Operations Centre's data streams will be "comparable to that of more than ten simultaneous football matches, including over 140 video and audio sources". It anticipates that the ROC will be "a valuable training and educational resource for of the next generation of Race Control staff and Stewards".
The FIA clarifies that the Remote Operations Centre "does not have any regulatory power and cannot be used to reassess or alter past decisions". It has been compared to football's VAR principle, but is described as "a supporting resource for the Race Direction" that will allow the FIA "to thoroughly replay and review aspects of the Competition and the decisions made in order to refine and improve procedures for the future".
The FIA's new Remote Operations Centre will operate "in an advisory capacity and will not interrupt the workflow of the Race Direction team onsite or cause any delay to the decision-making process". Procedural and regulatory matters may be referred to it.
The FIA says its new Remote Operations Centre (ROC), previously referred to as Virtual Race Control, is now online at its Geneva HQ. Here's how it will work.
The FIA communication also references the previously-announced FIA Remote Operations Centre that will "run trackside operations as well as a review of the interactions between teams and Race Control during track running". The communication goes on to explain how it will work.
The FIA has also attempted to close the door on ongoing discussions around the validity of the Abu Dhabi result by saying: "The results of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the FIA Formula One World Championship are valid, final and cannot now be changed". Strong words indeed.
To avoid a repeat situation in the future, the FIA has developed software "that will, from now on, automate the communication of the list of cars that must un-lap themselves". The statement adds that F1's 2022 sporting regulations "have been recently updated to clarify that 'all' and not 'any' cars must be permitted to un-lap themselves".

By: autosport.com

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