F1 results: Fernando Alonso fastest in Bahrain GP practice

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez beat Alonso to set the quickest time in FP1, held in full daylight conditions, before double world champion Alonso topped FP2 after darkness had descended.

Bahrain Grand Prix FP1 results: Perez fastest from Alonso

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Sergio Perez		Red Bull	Red Bull	21	1'32.758			210.043
2	Fernando Alonso		Aston Martin	Mercedes	22	1'33.196	0.438	0.438	209.056
3	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Red Bull	21	1'33.375	0.617	0.179	208.655
4	Lando Norris		McLaren	Mercedes	21	1'34.165	1.407	0.790	206.904
5	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari	17	1'34.257	1.499	0.092	206.702
6	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	Mercedes	17	1'34.298	1.540	0.041	206.613
7	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	Ferrari	20	1'34.402	1.644	0.104	206.385
8	Zhou Guanyu		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	18	1'34.575	1.817	0.173	206.007
9	Valtteri Bottas		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	20	1'34.689	1.931	0.114	205.759
10	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	Mercedes	13	1'34.917	2.159	0.228	205.265
11	George Russell		Mercedes	Mercedes	20	1'34.966	2.208	0.049	205.159
12	Oscar Piastri		McLaren	Mercedes	24	1'34.997	2.239	0.031	205.092
13	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	20	1'35.015	2.257	0.018	205.053
14	Nico Hulkenberg		Haas	Ferrari	22	1'35.043	2.285	0.028	204.993
15	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	Renault	20	1'35.105	2.347	0.062	204.859
16	Nyck de Vries		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	25	1'35.402	2.644	0.297	204.222
17	Pierre Gasly		Alpine	Renault	22	1'35.455	2.697	0.053	204.108
18	Logan Sargeant		Williams	Mercedes	24	1'35.749	2.991	0.294	203.482
19	Alex Albon		Williams	Mercedes	15	1'36.018	3.260	0.269	202.911
20	Carlos Sainz		Ferrari	Ferrari	21	1'36.072	3.314	0.054	202.797
View full results

What happened in Bahrain GP Free Practice 1?

Alonso set the early bar at 1m35.048s on medium tyres for Aston Martin, before Perez took over at the top of the times with 1m34.343s on mediums, some seven tenths faster. Alonso also improved his time but was over half a second off that pace.

At the halfway point, Perez and team-mate Max Verstappen switched to soft tyres on their Red Bulls. Perez lowered his own benchmark with a 1m32.758s, 0.617s faster than Verstappen’s 1m33.375s, and over two seconds clear of the opposition.

Alonso then split the Red Bulls with 1m33.196s on his soft-tyre run, with Lando Norris jumping up to fourth for McLaren.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was an impressive fifth on mediums, 1.5s off the pace with 1m34.257s. The Italian team had earlier trialled a single-pillar rear wing design, that proved to be very wobbly on track.

Leclerc's team-mate Carlos Sainz suffered a huge spin at Turn 9 with 20 minutes remaining, as the rear of his car bottomed-out too hard over a bump. Sainz remained planted at the bottom of the times, after not running on soft tyres.

Lance Stroll was back in his Aston Martin after suffering a wrist injury in a cycling accident, which forced him to miss all of testing, but he lost the first half of the session with an ignition problem. He recovered to end the session in sixth.

Mercedes didn’t run the softs and placed 10^th and 11^th with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell respectively, both over 2s off the pace.

Bahrain Grand Prix FP2 results: Alonso fastest from Verstappen

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Fernando Alonso		Aston Martin	Mercedes	25	1'30.907			214.320
2	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Red Bull	24	1'31.076	0.169	0.169	213.922
3	Sergio Perez		Red Bull	Red Bull	26	1'31.078	0.171	0.002	213.917
4	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari	26	1'31.367	0.460	0.289	213.241
5	Nico Hulkenberg		Haas	Ferrari	25	1'31.376	0.469	0.009	213.220
6	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	Mercedes	28	1'31.450	0.543	0.074	213.047
7	Pierre Gasly		Alpine	Renault	24	1'31.475	0.568	0.025	212.989
8	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	Mercedes	27	1'31.543	0.636	0.068	212.831
9	Lando Norris		McLaren	Mercedes	27	1'31.570	0.663	0.027	212.768
10	Zhou Guanyu		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	27	1'31.586	0.679	0.016	212.731
11	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	Renault	25	1'31.608	0.701	0.022	212.680
12	Valtteri Bottas		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	28	1'31.793	0.886	0.185	212.251
13	George Russell		Mercedes	Mercedes	25	1'31.882	0.975	0.089	212.045
14	Carlos Sainz		Ferrari	Ferrari	28	1'31.956	1.049	0.074	211.875
15	Oscar Piastri		McLaren	Mercedes	27	1'32.024	1.117	0.068	211.718
16	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	Ferrari	18	1'32.110	1.203	0.086	211.521
17	Alex Albon		Williams	Mercedes	28	1'32.440	1.533	0.330	210.765
18	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	27	1'32.525	1.618	0.085	210.572
19	Nyck de Vries		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	28	1'32.605	1.698	0.080	210.390
20	Logan Sargeant		Williams	Mercedes	29	1'32.749	1.842	0.144	210.063
View full results

What happened in Bahrain GP Free Practice 2?

After the sun had set, track temperatures tumbled to give much more reflective track conditions for qualifying and the race.

After a poor showing in FP1, Alpine went straight out on softs with Esteban Ocon producing 1m32.415s before Sainz took P1 with 1m31.956s. Leclerc, despite complaining of a clutch issue, beat that by just over a tenth with 1m31.843s.

Just before the halfway point, Stroll went to the top with 1m31.450s. The fastest times then came thick and fast, with Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) producing 1m31.376s and Perez lapping in 1m31.078s, before Alonso achieved 1m30.907s – which proved to be the quickest lap of the day.

Verstappen could only manage 1m31.076s, 0.169s down on Alonso, to go P2. Perez slipped to third, ahead of Leclerc, Hulkenberg and Stroll. Top Mercedes was Hamilton again in eighth, just behind Alpine newboy Pierre Gasly.

Stroll almost caused a big shunt earlier by cruising in the middle of the track into Turn 1, as Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) arrived in a high-speed, side-by-side duel.