McLaren put in strong showing in Bahrain practice as Hamilton struggles

Final practice is at 1.30pm BST with qualifying at 5pm. 

1. PIA 1:30.505
2. NOR +0.154
3. RUS +0.527
4. LEC +0.540
5. ANT +0.722
6. HAD +0.733
7. VER +0.825
8. HAM +1.071
9. BEA +1.079
10. SAI +1.118
11. ALB +1.191
12. LAW +1.201
13. BOR +1.267
14. DOO +1.283
15. ALO +1.320
16. OCO +1.365
17. GAS +1.442
18. TSU +1.519
19. STR +1.887
20. HUL +1.991

All 20 drivers within two seconds. In fact, just 1.2sec separates Anotnelli in fifth from Hulkenberg in 20th. Just 0.45sec between Hamilton in eighth and Tsunoda in 18th. It’s close, but not really at the very front. 

Don’t think we saw anything from those race simulations that told us anything other than McLaren will be strong favourites this weekend. Full classification coming up. 

Well, he ends up miles off the circuit rather than locking up heavily.

Team-mate battle watch: Tsunoda well down from Max Verstappen (0.7sec or so) but Sainz ahead of Albon. Has been a tough start for the Spaniard at the team but he is still bedding in.

Hadjar is not only the lead Racing Bulls driver (Lawson in 12th, half a second back) but the leading Red Bull driver of any kind, a tenth or so ahead of Verstappen from a lap that was set on the medium tyres.

Stewards might take a look at this one but not sure we will see any penalty. 

That is unlike the Albon/Browning incident from FP1 earlier, for which the former has been given a hefty fine. 

Norris and Verstappen are eight laps onto their runs on soft tyres. Norris looks to be the quicker man so far, 0.671sec quicker than the Dutchman, though he made an error the last lap in the final sector. Norris in a bit of traffic, though. 

Let’s see how this develops. 

This is the incident we were referring to earlier. How very strange. 

Much better for Ferrari, 0.540sec off Piastri and in fourth for the Monegasque, just behind Russell. Still, a long way from the McLaren. 

How much? Well, he has slipped ahead of his team-mate Leclerc by 0.076sec and into seventh place. Seems to be the same old story for Ferrari in 2025 so far. Verstappen complains of his brakes “not working” in the final corner. Relatively, he means. 

1. PIA
2. NOR +0.154
3. RUS +0.527
4. ANT +0.722
5. HAD +0.733
6. VER +0.825
7. BEA +1.079
8. SAI +1.118
9. LEC +1.147
10. ALB +1.191

Hamilton has slipped down to 15th, 1.4sec off Piastri’s ultimate lap time. A replay from Charles Leclerc’s onboard shows... not sure what it is showing really. That he got a tow? Don’t know. It wasn’t abundantly obvious what we were looking at, other than Leclerc finishing his lap.

Not a lot by the looks of it. Leclerc is nearly seven tenths off after two sectors and that ends up 1.147sec off Piastri’s pace over the whole lap. Ouch. Hamilton down in 12th and currently in his garage. 

He puts in the fastest second and final sectors to go 0.154sec ahead of his team-mate. George Russell is on a good lap but crosses the line more than half a second off the pace after setting the fastest first sector of anyone. That looks ominous from McLaren, I have to say. 

Onto the big boys now. Alex Albon goes quickest of all with a fine lap but then Max Verstappen beats that by 0.366sec in the Red Bull. Lando Norris out on the McLaren and is 0.444sec up on Verstappen after two sectors... can his tyres hang on?

Yes, they can. He even improves to go 0.671sec ahead of Verstappen. What can Piastri and Russell do?

Albon out for a performance run. The track is currently fairly quiet. 

He posts the fastest middle sector and crosses the line with a 1:31.915 to go fastest, 0.030sec faster than former team-mate George Russell. Antonelli in third, around four tenths behind Hamilton. 

1. RUS 1:31.945
2. HAM +0.212
3. ANT +0.348
4. VER +0.431
5. PIA +0.724
6. GAS +0.754
7. LEC +0.810
8. HAD +0.823
9. NOR +0.931
10. ALB +1.055

Hamilton had just done the fastest first sector time before he pulled out of his quick lap. Wonder if he was distracted by a car ahead. He was a long way from making the corner in the correct way. The McLarens not yet onto the soft tyres but Piastri is lapping currently.

How does Hamilton’s latest lap look on the soft tyres? He runs a bit deep into turn eight and that likely costs him significant time. He abandons the lap it seems after that and comes back into the pit lane. 

Russell improves to go fastest on a 1:31.945. 

Leclerc is in seventh after a few laps on the medium tyres. Lando Norris runs long at the first corner as Hamilton begins another fast lap. 

He has an issue with his steering wheel. The dash display is blank and it perhaps looks like the steering wheel has become slightly detached before he attaches it again. 

Hamilton leads the way from Antonelli, Russell, Piastri, Gasly, Hadjar, Norris and Albon. A big mixture of medium, hard and soft tyres among them, though. 

The track temperature is down to 36 degrees and the air temperature now 30c. Track temps were closer to 50. Verstappen is out on softs early on... but runs wide on the exit of turn 10. 

“The ride is so bad, the car is jumping a lot,” he says. 

We have an hour of running ahead of us and I expect it to be action-packed. OK, it is only practice but there will be plenty of laps.

I wouldn’t expect that time out of the car will have affected Max Verstappen too much. He does, though, expect this weekend to be a tougher one for Red Bull. Might have his work cut out to win again. McLaren’s to lose is the common thinking. High temperatures will likely aid their advantage on rear tyre wear. 

Three races in (plus the sprint) and not a solitary point scored. At the same point last year he had 16 points (though no sprint race) and the year before that he had 45. So far this year he has retired from the first two rounds (one his own fault and one a brake issue) and finished 11th in Japan. Team-mate Lance Stroll, by contrast, has 10 points after sixth in Australia and ninth in Japan. 

Aston Martin sit seventh in the standings so far with 10 points. A bit much to say the season has will be a write-off for them because it will likely be tight in that pack behind the leaders. Still, they should be the ones leading that pack. 

They have been struggling from having to run the car higher than they’d like, which is costing them performance. 

Here is the new version for Bahrain:

Here is what they were running in Japan last weekend:

I am not sure it is immediately clear what is different from that angle. 

Six teams ran rookies for FP1 earlier today, which meant that Alonso, Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc, Sainz and Bearman all did not take part. They are back in their cars for the more important session this evening, though. 

Both he and Lando Norris have their say...

My answer would be: yes. Well, not necessarily walking it, but I think he would be further ahead than Norris currently is. And that is no slight on Norris, but I think Verstappen has been the best driver on the grid for the past six or seven years. 

McLaren’s Lando Norris ended first practice for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix fastest. His time of 1min33.204sec was 0.238sec quicker than Alpine’s Pierre Gasly with Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari nearly six-tenths off Norris’s pace in third.

Alexander Albon was fourth for Williams, with Oscar Piastri down in 10th for McLaren after making a mistake on his soft-tyre run.

Max Verstappen, George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc, Oliver Bearman and Charles Leclerc all made way in the session for a crop of six rookies. The more experienced men will return to their cars for second practice at 4pm.

Numerous drivers complained about a lack of grip in the session, which took place in searing temperatures. Second practice, which runs under lights, will be more representative of the weekend’s competitive order.

Russell, Alonso, Verstappen, Bearman, Sainz and Leclerc will be back in their cars for that. And we will be back with all the live coverage around 3.15pm. 

Not a great deal, but that was expected. I don’t think there was much unexpected in the session, though. Very limited running for two Mercedes main drivers this weekend. No Russell because he was replaced by Vesti and Antonelli only managed three laps because of a technical issue. 

1. NOR 1:33.204
2. GAS +0.238
3. HAM +0.596
4. ALB +0.724
5. OCO +0.980
6. HUL +1.058
7. DOO +1.192
8. LAW +1.193
9. TSU +1.280
10. PIA +1.304
11. BOR +1.424
12. HAD +1.463
13. BRO +1.681
14. BEG +1.851
15. STR +1.912
16. DRU +1.994
17. HIR +2.057
18. VES 2.121
19. IWA +2.271
20. ANT +4.847

It’s Luke Browning for Williams on the soft tyre. He is in 13th, 1.681sec off Norris and just under a second off team-mate Albon. 

In fact, I am sure we shouldn’t. A lot of factors that mitigate the usefulness of it all. Mainly because it will be much cooler when they run in FP2 later today in similar conditions to what it will be in qualifying and the race, under lights. Secondly, a lot of the top teams are missing one of their main drivers for the rookies. 

I use the word some in a qualified way... he moves third, but is nearly 0.6sec off Norris’s ultimate pace. 

How effective has it been? Impossible to say right now but some time after FP2 we will know better. 

Norris looks to be going again on the soft tyres Antonelli has not returned to the track since that water leak meant he had to go back into the garage. He is in 18th. No soft-tyre running from Ferrari... yet. Dino Beganovic is coming out on them, though, as is Hamilton. Let’s get a look at this. 

Browning is on a hot lap and Albon is pootling around as they head towards T13. Albon tries to move out of the way but instead moves into the way and essentially forces Browning off track. That could have been a big one. 

Meanwhile, Lando Norris goes fastest of all by 0.238sec from Gasly as Hamilton locks up heavily heading into the pit lane. Hamilton down in 15th but still no running on the soft tyres. 

Albon was sent out too early by the Williams mechanics, but Tsunoda then moves to try to overtake in the fast lane. 

1. GAS 1:33.442
2. ALB +0.486
3. OCO +0.742
4. HUL +0.820
5. DOO +0.954
6. TSU +1.042
7. PIA +1.066
8. LAW +1.094
9. BOR +1.186
10. HAD +1.225

Norris has not done a soft-tyre run, neither have Hamilton or the six rookies. 

Ocon goes fastest in the Haas. He is 0.078sec faster than his old team-mate Nico Hulkenberg. Gasly posts the fastest first sector and Tsunoda is about to finish a flying lap on the soft tyres. He crosses the line in fourth, 0.3sec off Ocon’s pace. Not great. 

Albon goes fastest but then Gasly beats that by nearly half a second. 

But he runs wide at the second corner, losing a fair bit of time.

Gabriel Bortoleto has just moved fastest but is then very quickly displaced by his team-mate at Sauber, Nico Hulkenberg. Both of those runs on the soft tyres, and we will see more of that now. Hulkenberg locked up on that run, which would have cost him time down the middle straight. 

A 1:35.180 puts him 0.069sec faster than Norris, both laps on the medium tyres. 

Here is the order. Around 1.7sec separates these. 

1. NOR
2. ALB
3. GAS
4. PIA
5. HUL
6. OCO
7. TSU
8. HAM
9. DOO
10. STR

None of the rookies are in the top 10. They are 12th (Vesti), 15th (Hirakawa), 16th (Iwasa), 18th (Beganovic), 19th (Drugovich) and 20th (Browning). 

He is asked if he wants one more push on the current tyres and set-up. He is unequivocal in his response.

“It feels horrendous mate, nope.”

He comes back into the garage. 

The latest is Piastri. 35 degrees in the air and nearly 50c on the track.

“Balance, uh, feels like the car is not working at all but it’s probably just the grip of the tyres,” he says. 

“Try to maximise full throttle to fully charge it,” comes the response. 

Here’s a quick glance at the top 10:

1. NOR 1:35.249
2. ALB +0.503
3. OCO +0.987
4. GAS +1.330
5. HAM +1.450
6. STR +1.949
7. HIR +2.240
8. DOO +2.338
9. HAD +2.522

“No power,” he says on the radio to his race engineer. He’s still got half of the lap to go, will he be able to get it back to the garage?

Anyway, Norris leads Albon by 0.130secmwith Ocon, Gasly, Piastri and Hamilton behind. 

The car is pulling a lot in a straight line, like left to right. 

Hirakawa in the Haas leads the way from Bortoleto and Iwasa at the moment, though Ocon comes along and beats them all comfortably for what it is worth. Vesti locks up at the first corner but eventually mamages to get the Mercedes turned, via a tail slide, and going again. 

Iwasa at the end of the pit lane and he will be the first driver to get going. For any of these six rookies, the main thing to avoid is putting it in the barriers. Of course, that is true of every driver rookie or not but the embarrassment would be acute. And it would not be an ideal situation for the driver they are subbing in for. 

First impressions are that it appears to be very toasty in Bahrain and that could play into McLaren’s hands. 

Here is who they are:

Aston Martin: Felipe Drugovic (no Alonso)
Red Bull: Ayumu Iwasa (no Verstappen)
Ferrari: Dino Beganovic (no Leclerc)
Williams: Luke Browning (no Sainz)
Haas: Ryo Hirakawa (no Bearman)
Mercedes: Frederik Vesti (no Russell)

All teams have to run “rookies” (or those with fewer then three races under their belt) equating to two each per car, so four in total. 

Some close contests out there, some others not so close. What are the standouts? I think, really, Bearman and Albon are the standout performers. I think that Sainz should be given some leeway from too harsh criticism given he is adjusting to life at a new team. 

It’s a long one. 

This measure is an average of how fast teams have been in the four qualifying sessions so far. 

Carlos Sainz Jnr has risked a €40,000 (£35,000) fine for swearing in a press conference, just days after he was fined €20,000 for being late to the national anthem because he was in the lavatory.

The Williams driver’s disciplinary issues are likely to rile other Formula One drivers who feel that the FIA, the sport’s governing body, is overly severe on matters such as swearing and punctuality, while missing the bigger picture.

Read the full article here.

April 11
FP1 – 12.30pm BST
FP2 – 4pm

April 12
FP3 – 1.30pm
Qualifying – 5pm

April 13
Race – 4pm

Welcome to our live coverage for practice for the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix from the Sakhir International Circuit, just outside of Manama. It is the third race in a triple header that started in Japan last week and finishes with Saudi Arabia next week. So far there have been four rounds in the season and we have learnt a few things. 

The first of those is that McLaren are very much the team to beat. They have showcased their speed on three different tracks so far and have shown few weaknesses, unlike the other teams they are fighting with, who have shown some at various points. What Suzuka last weekend proved, though, was that McLaren are vulnerable, especially to Max Verstappen. 

The RB21 has been a problematic car, there is no doubt about that. There is also little doubt about Verstappen’s ability to wring every ounce of performance from it. On the ultimate drivers’ track he narrowly took pole from the two McLarens, kept the lead at the start and then held off Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for more than 50 laps to take the victory. 

The McLarens certainly had the faster ultimate pace, but Verstappen did not put a wheel wrong throughout Sunday and the pace advantage was not enormous anyway. Indeed, Norris was within two seconds for most of the race but never had the opportunity to activate DRS on his rear wing. 

This all means that Norris leads Verstappen by just a single point with Piastri, who only picked up a couple of points in Australia, in third, 13 points behind his team-mate. There is a long way to go but that very much looks like how this championship is panning out. George Russell has driven solidly so far this season but it does not look like the Mercedes has the ultimate pace at the moment. As for Ferrari, they have shown their pace at points, but it has been too few and far between. When it has come down to it they have been to far adrift. 

Bahrain, though, will offer different conditions as we return to the location of pre-season testing. It will again give us another data point and mean we end up learning something more about the current pecking order.