Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two in Thursday practice at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Hamilton was 0.206 seconds quicker than team-mate George Russell with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso just 0.08secs further adrift.
Pre-season favourite Max Verstappen was down in sixth, 0.477secs off the pace.
However, the three-time world champion appeared to be the fastest as expected when the teams switched to race-simulation runs later in the session.
The Dutch driver, who has led the Formula One standings for a record 39-races going back to May 2022, had headed into the weekend favourite to open his pursuit of a fourth consecutive title with victory on Saturday.
Behind Alonso, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fourth quickest ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg was seventh, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez completing the top 10.
Sherjeel Malik is the editor at FanHaat with a writing experience in multiple sports. He oversees the editorial and content coverage at FanHaat and writes often around combat sports, football and other marquee sports. A professional highlight of his career was when WWE’s Paul Heyman shared one of his articles on his social media.
Apart from writing, editing and watching sports, he likes to indulge in reading fiction, watching war documentaries and is a fan of Liverpool FC
