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Formula 1 Bahrain March Testing

F1 Bahrain pre-season test - Day 1

Minute by minute updates on the opening day of the 2022 Bahrain F1 pre-season test

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18

All 10 teams are set to be in action for the first day of the Bahrain pre-season test, fresh off the back of the Barcelona shakedown test two weeks ago which saw the debut of the new era of F1 with the new cars devised under the new technical regulations.

Track action gets underway at 7am GMT and finishes at 4pm GMT. The day will be split by a one-hour lunch break (11am-12pm GMT) which can be reduced if requested due to lost track time from either red flags or poor weather conditions.

The opening day will provide a first look at what changes each team has made to the cars following the Barcelona pre-season shakedown test, as teams search for ways to solve the porpoising phenomenon which cropped up in the shakedown test.

Haas is set to miss the morning session after a late arrival of freight due to transport delays, with reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi prepared to drive the VF-22 this afternoon for the US team.

On the eve of the Bahrain test, Haas announced Kevin Magnussen would make a return to F1 to replace Nikita Mazepin following the termination of his contract, while the team also cut ties to title sponsor Uralkali due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Bahrain pre-season test will take place on 10-12 March ahead of the 2022 F1 season opener at the same venue, the Bahrain Grand Prix, on 18-20 March.

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Perez comes out on track on a fresh set of C2 tyres in the Red Bull. He, Gasly, Albon, Russell and Fittipaldi are on track currently.
Fittipaldi does improve on that lap to a 1m39.325s in 14th.
Fittipaldi is on a PB lap on the C2 proto tyre. He's completed 19 laps today in the Haas.
There's only three cars out on track at the moment: Albon, Bottas and Stroll.
Think we are back into a period of long running now. Sainz s out there on the C2 tyre and his last lap was a few seconds off his best.
And Stroll now does the same thing.
Gasly is the latest to have a lock-up at Turn 10. Maybe we need to set up a Turn 10 lock-up jar.
Stroll has a big lock-up into Turn 1 on the C2 tyres. We've seen that a lot today from the drivers.
Leclerc's 1m34.531s from the first session remains the best lap of the day so far, with Albon, Bottas, Vettel, Gasly, Perez, Sainz, Norris, Hamilton, Russell, Ocon, Zhou, Stroll, Alonso and Fittipaldi slotting in behind.
Nice to see some more time attack laps coming in as the sun begins to set and the temperatures come back to something more optimal for the track.
Bottas is hustling is Alfa around on the C3 tyres and goes third with a 1m35.495s.
Sainz jumps up to sixth with a1m36.076s on the C2 tyres. Over a push lap, the new Ferrari looks quite hooked up.
Sainz is on a PB lap on the C2 tyres.
Norris has improved on his lap time in seventh with a 1m36.360s.
Norris is out on track again on the C2 tyre. He's completed 32 laps today so far with two hours to go on Thursday.
Gasly is on another lap on the C3 tyres, but locked up into Turn 8 and ran a bit wide.
Albon has done a lot of work on that C4 tyre today. He's come into the pits having clocked 80 laps so far.
Russell goes to eighth with a 1m36.553s on the C3 tyre. Clearly he's done with the high fuel running for now.
McLaren appear to be getting ready to let Norris loose. Meanwhile, Russell is continuing with his C3 tyre run.
Gasly jumps up to fourth with a 1m35.819s, 1.288s of Leclerc's lap.
Gasly is out there now on the C3 tyre and is on a PB lap.
Looks like Perez is putting some laps on the C1 tyre just now. He's just rattled off his 113th lap.
Track conditions aren't really optimal at this time of the day, so it's no surprise the track isn't a hive of activity. There's also not a lot to gain by going too hard on day one of the test.
Bottas uses the slipstream to get past Albon into Turn 1. That's about as exciting as testing has been so far this afternoon.
Just the five drivers on track right now. Bottas is on a push lap, but has been held up by Albon in the Williams on this tour.
Alonso is back in his garage and there's some work going on to his car. Fittipaldi is out on the C2 tyre in the re-liveried Haas.
Russell does improve to a 1m40.921s, which moves him up to 14th. Looks like he's still running a lot of fuel.
Russell is on a PB lap on the C3 tyre currently.
Whenever I see that Alfa Romeo, I can't help but think of the old Toyota.

 

Bottas crosses the line with a 1m36.279s which moves him up to fifth.
Bottas is on a quick lap on the C3 tyre. Currently 1.2s off Leclerc as he enters the final sector.
Sainz is continuing with the C2 proto tyre - though pulls into pitlane for a dummy pitstop.
Alonso improves to a 1m39.437s, which keeps him 13th and 4.9s off Leclerc's best.
Alonso has come out on the C2 tyres as well in his Alpine and is on a personal best lap.
Stroll moves up to 11th with a 1m37.861s on C2 tyres.
Stroll has joined the action again. He's currently 12th on the times.
A replay of Sainz shows off the dreaded 'porpoising' effect of the new cars as he bounced down the straight into Turn 1.
Sainz pops in a 1m36.971s on that previous lap, which keeps him sixth on the timesheets but was only just over two tenths off his best effort.
Currently it's only Sainz and Perez on track currently with just over two hours and 40 minutes of action remaining.
Sainz is out on track right now on the C2 development tyre. Team-mate Leclerc spun some laps on that tyre this morning.

By: Haydn Cobb

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