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The opening weekend of the longest season in Method 1 historical past noticed Mercedes write the primary headline.
The Toto Wolff-run staff had each its drivers on the high of the time sheet come the top of the second free observe session, the one that’s most related because it was held in comparable circumstances to these present in tomorrow’s qualifying and Saturday’s race. Quickest was Lewis Hamilton (1:30.374) whereas team-mate George Russell was simply 206 thousandths of a second slower. Behind the Mercedes duo got here 5 drivers from 5 totally different groups within the following order: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Max Verstappen (Pink Bull) and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), all inside 286 thousandths, the German’s time 510 thousandths slower than Hamilton’s.
Fairly sturdy winds have been the order of the day, in addition to a lot cooler temperatures than regular for the Bahrain Grand Prix and to a lesser extent to these skilled ultimately week’s take a look at, with the mercury dropping beneath 20° for air temperature in FP2. It ought to be famous that this occasion is going down a bit earlier within the yr than regular. Hamilton’s time was just below six tenths quicker than the perfect FP2 time from final yr, when Alonso posted a 1:30.907 and 666 thousandths off the 2023 pole time set by Verstappen.
A method or one other, all three dry tyre compounds chosen for this Grand Prix got here into play over the course of the 2 free observe periods. The alternatives have been cut up between the C2 and the C3, the previous used probably the most in FP1 and the latter in FP2. Nobody ran the C1, clear proof that groups need to hold one or each units for the race. That state of affairs performed out on this observe final yr and would appear to be believable, after final week’s take a look at session.
Simone Berra, Chief Engineer: “A really fascinating day, as a result of we bought our first indications of the hierarchy down the pit lane, even when one has to take into consideration the same old unknown elements equivalent to how a lot gas the vehicles had on board and the way the facility unit was used. We noticed the groups make nearly an identical selections when it comes to tyre utilization, with a desire for the C2 within the first session and the C3 within the second, when observe circumstances have been much like these we are able to anticipate for the race, whereas the 2 units of C1 have been saved for the remainder of the weekend. The lengthy runs in FP2 have been nearly all accomplished on the C3 and demonstrated that even the softest compound might be aggressive over an extended stint. As for the C2, we already noticed in testing that the distinction in efficiency in comparison with the C1 shouldn’t be so huge, however the hardest compound ensures higher consistency and is due to this fact the popular alternative for the race.”
Try our Thursday gallery from Bahrain here.
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