After 95 days, we finally made it to race week and the cars have hit the track.
For the last on track sessions before qualifying and the race, all teams used their free practice sessions to test out their car’s performance and reliability for the final time. Let’s find out how the they fared:
Free Practice 1
| 1 | Pierre Gasly | 1:34.193 | 11 | Guanyu Zhou | 1:35.053 | |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | 1:34.557 | 12 | Esteban Ocon | 1:35.151 | |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | 1:34.611 | 13 | Nicholas Latifi | 1:35.644 | |
| 4 | George Russell | 1:34.629 | 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | 1:35.815 | |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | 1:34.742 | 15 | Alex Albon | 1:35.923 | |
| 6 | Lance Stroll | 1:34.814 | 16 | Lando Norris | 1:36.304 | |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | 1:34.943 | 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | 1:36.402 | |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | 1:35.000 | 18 | Mick Schumacher | 1:36.536 | |
| 9 | Yuki Tsunoda | 1:35.028 | 19 | Kevin Magnussen | 1:36.804 | |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | 1:35.050 | 20 | Valtteri Bottas | N/A |
At the opening session in Bahrain it is Pierre Gasly who tops the timesheets followed by the two Ferraris.
On his first outing in the 2022 spec car, Hulkenberg – after replacing Sebastian Vettel following a positive Covid-19 test – got his Aston Martin to P14, a full second behind his teammate.
After shedding a good chunk of bodywork on the main straight, the Alpine of Esteban Ocon was summoned to the pits and the red flags were brought out. On his return to the track he managed to put in a P12.
Although still four tenths off Gasly’s P1, Russell put his Mercedes in P4 at four tenths ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas’ first on track session since leaving Mercedes couldn’t have gone much worse after an engine misfire left him completing just two laps in the whole session. His teammate had a positive first competitive session placing in P11.
It was a very quiet session for the Mclarens, after replacing their brakes to solve their issues at testing, Norris and Ricciardo only managed a mere 16th and 17th respectively.
Free Practice 2
| 1 | Max Verstappen | 1:31.936 | 11 | Lando Norris | 1:33.280 | |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | 1:32.023 | 12 | Esteban Ocon | 1:33.360 | |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | 1:32.520 | 13 | Pierre Gasly | 1:33.621 | |
| 4 | George Russell | 1:32.529 | 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | 1:33.789 | |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | 1:32.877 | 15 | Guanyu Zhou | 1:33.953 | |
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas | 1:32.951 | 16 | Lance Stroll | 1:33.958 | |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | 1:32.958 | 17 | Nico Hulkenberg | 1:34.061 | |
| 8 | Mick Schumacher | 1:33.085 | 18 | Daniel Ricciardo | 1:34.166 | |
| 9 | Lewis Hamilton | 1:33.144 | 19 | Nicholas Latifi | 1:34.486 | |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | 1:33.183 | 20 | Alex Albon | 1:34.735 |
Charles Leclerc looked to be an easy favourite after holding P1 on and off for much of the session, but it was Max Verstappen who set the fastest lap – just 87 thousandths of a second clear from Leclerc.
Halfway through the session Verstappen fitted a set of softs and set a 1:31.936 – this remained unchallenged throughout FP2.
Making up for lost time in the morning, Valtteri Bottas managed to get his Alfa Romeo up to P6 once his power unit was fixed. His rookie teammate only reached P15.
One of the key headlines was that the two Haas drivers rounded off the top 10 resulting in a great Friday all round for the American team.
Many still believed the Mercedes was hiding their true potential however on board footage showed Hamilton struggling to handle the car. Quick to shut down the idea they’re ‘bluffing’ Hamilton says:
“We had small problems in the past, relatively, compared to this year. We are faced with much, much bigger problems this year and everything we do to try and fix it doesn’t really change that. It appears there’s probably going to be a more longer term fix, so nothing in the short term.”
Free Practice 3
| 1 | Max Verstappen | 1:32.544 | 11 | Lando Norris | 1:33.955 | |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | 1:32.640 | 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | 1:33.971 | |
| 3 | Sergio Perez | 1:32.791 | 13 | Pierre Gasly | 1:34.176 | |
| 4 | George Russell | 1:32.935 | 14 | Mick Schumacher | 1:34.295 | |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | 1:33.053 | 15 | Daniel Ricciardo | 1:34.378 | |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | 1:33.121 | 16 | Fernando Alonso | 1:34.628 | |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | 1:33.437 | 17 | Alex Albon | 1:34.868 | |
| 8 | Valtteri Bottas | 1:33.733 | 18 | Esteban Ocon | 1:34.957 | |
| 9 | Zhou Guanyu | 1:33.880 | 19 | Nicholas Latifi | 1:35.667 | |
| 10 | Lance Stroll | 1:33.920 | 20 | Yuki Tsunoda | N/A |
Much like both of Friday’s sessions, FP3 ended with Max Verstappen narrowly outpacing Charles Leclerc. The two cars look so far to be fairly evenly matched on pace.
With Hamilton the first driver to set a fast lap, Mercedes finally showed their true hand. However after the Red Bulls and Ferraris set their times, the Mercedes drivers had to settle for P4 and P6. Given the lack of pace they looked to be having throughout testing, it is certainly encouraging.
After his reprimand yesterday – for an incident with Leclerc – Tsunoda’s bad luck continued into Saturday. When setting out onto the track the team noticed a hydraulic leak that couldn’t be fixed before the end of FP3, leaving Yuki without any time on track.
Alfa Romeo continue to look promising – after Bottas’ FP2 result – with both drivers comfortably in the top 10.
Next up is qualifying which starts 2pm UK time. Follow us on socials (@JoinEF1) for all the latest.