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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
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After the intense three-day pre-season test at the same track last week, the 2023 F1 season begins this weekend with the Bahrain GP.
Having missed the pre-season test due to a wrist injury, Lance Stroll is making his comeback for Aston Martin alongside Fernando Alonso, with the Spaniard going quickest on Friday.
Bahrain GP final practice begins at 11:30am GMT followed by qualifying which starts at 3:00pm GMT and the race takes place on Sunday at 3:00pm GMT.
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With the first runs complete, Hulkenberg, Bottas and Norris are currently the men set to join the Red Bulls, Mercedes, Ferraris and Alonso in Q3.
The Ferraris are unable to match Alonso, and so slot into sixth and seventh with Sainz ahead of Leclerc.
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Now here come the Red Bulls, and it's Verstappen in top spot with a 1m30.503s. Perez is second, 0.243s in arrears.
A 1m31.932 from Hulkenberg briefly stood as the best effort before it was lowered by Alonso, Russell and Hamilton in quick succession.
Stroll's first effort is a 1m32.305s, which is over a second slower than his Q1 best. He'll have to go again.
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When it rains, it pours...
Stroll has a big oversteer wiggle at Turn 2, that will compromise his first flyer somewhat.
The Ferraris are again using the softs. No sign of anybody feeling confident enough to progress on the mediums after that earlier experiment.
Alas we have some cars on track. Hulkenberg is followed by Ocon, Stroll and a bunch of other cars.
No movement for the first two minutes of the session. Everybody still catching their breath from Q1?
Green flag
Q2 is now under way. Who will make the top 10 shootout?
Did anybody have Sargeant down as the top rookie in qualifying? An impressive effort that will surely make American F1 fans sit up and take notice.
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What of Red Bull? Verstappen was seventh, Perez 10th. What to make of that, we wonder.
Sargeant set the same time as Norris down to the thousdandth, but it's the McLaren who progresses having set the time first. A sigh of relief for McLaren, who were a whisker away from a double Q1 fall. Encouraging on the flipside for Williams, who saw Albon through in ninth.
At the front there's little change in the order as Sainz remains fastest from Russell, Leclerc and Alonso. Stroll moves up to fifth while F1 returnee Hulkenberg also impresses by securing sixth to ensure Haas has one car progress to Q2.
Checkered flag
Sargeant moves up to 16th but just misses out on a debut Q2 appearance. He does however outqualify Gasly, Magnussen, Piastri and De Vries in a good session for the Williams rookie.
Gasly also misses out on debut for Alpine!
Tsunoda also makes an improvement to go seventh. Magnussen improves but is only 16th so he will definitely miss out.
He does, but it's enough for seventh - although he gets quickly shuffled back by Stroll going fifth.
Albon improves in his first sector, but will he face traffic at the end of his lap as the train of cars queues up for their final runs?
Final run time, let's make it count.
The pressure is on for Stroll, the only man without a banker. Should he lift the Aston into the sort of territory Alonso is occupying, the man most at risk is Gasly currently on the bubble in 15th. Just above him is De Vries in 14th, Albon 13th and Magnussen 12th behind the Alfas of Bottas and Zhou.
Tsunoda and Albon hit the track first and are followed by... everyone else.
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Everybody has headed back to the pits then for a fresh set of rubber before they go again. Who will blink first?
Down in the bottom five currently are Hulkenberg, Norris, Piastri, Sargeant and Stroll - the Aston man had his first flyer deleted for track limits.
There's just 0.064s between Sainz and Russell at the top, with Leclerc third and Alonso fourth followed by the two Red Bulls and Hamilton in seventh.
Stopwatch
And we have another new face at the top of the leaderboard. It's Sainz who is the first to duck under the 1m31s, on a 1m30.993s lap. He's fastest through sector one, but Alonso remains quickest through the second and third splits.
Alonso then takes the top spot on a 1m31.158s, but is shuffled back by Leclerc and then Russell! The Mercedes man lowers the benchmark to 1m31.057s.
Stroll betters the time of both Alfas, Magnussen's Haas and Albon's Williams with a 1m31.617s that puts him fastest so far.
A bit of housekeeping as times now start to flood in - Sainz's first lap was deleted for track limits.
The Ferraris have returned to the fray, now on softs. Everybody now either on a flyer or an outlap. Things are going to get busy.
The debris, circling back to that, appears to have come from Leclerc's wheelcover.
Green flag
Albon leads the pack out of the pits as the session resumes.
There's a rather expensive traffic jam at the end of the pitlane comprising Haas, Alfa Romeo and Williams machinery as teams await the session restarting.
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The session will resume at 18:12 local time.
The time stopped with 13m23s on the clock. Down at Ferrari the right-front brake duct is undergoing some attention on Leclerc's car after his big lock up.
Several other drivers had ventured out of the pits and were on-track before the red flags flew. Hulkenberg and the two Red Bulls and McLarens had all taken softs, leaving Ferrari so far as the outliers on the mediums.
By: Autosport Staff
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