black, red and yellow formula one car on the Bahrain Grand Prix 2024 track

Sophia Crothall

Formula 1 makes its comeback with the Bahrain Grand Prix 2024, igniting the season with thrilling excitement and anticipation.

Thursday: FP1 and FP2

Across the weekend, three free practice sessions take place. However, only one, FP2 is of any benefit. This is due to the session taking place in the evening, which mirrors the conditions the drivers will be racing in in qualifying and the race. 

The pace Mercedes demonstrated in FP2 appeared surprising for most, with their straight-line speed looking promising. On the other hand, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen faced a few issues with his gearshifts but still managed to finish at the top of the timesheets, with an average lap time of  1 minute 36.715 seconds across 14 laps. 

Verstappen said: “The practice sessions today were not perfect but we were not too far off. The long runs were quite decent, and I think we can always do a little better on those laps. There were a few small balance issues that we will work on but I am quite happy with everything with the car overall. Today was just about trying to find that sweet spot and getting the perfect balance in the car.”

Commenting on his experience, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said: “We had a positive FP2 session. The car was feeling good, but we can not get ahead of ourselves. We know there is more to extract, and our long-run pace is not in the fight with the Red Bulls. Overall though, I am feeling much happier with the car than last year. We have made some good improvements and it feels much more like a race car. It is a really good platform for us to build from. We just need to keep our heads down and keep chasing.”

Friday: FP3 and Qualifying

Following a rather straightforward final free practice session, the race’s qualifying took place at 4 pm GMT. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz set the early pace at 1m29.909s in Q1. Both Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant (Williams) and the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly fell at the first hurdle. 

In Q2, it was Verstappen who set the bar at 1 minute 29.374 seconds, over half a second ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez. At the end of the session, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took away P1, finishing the session two-tenths up on Verstappen, with a time of 1 minute 29.374 seconds. At the end of the session both the RBs of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Alex Albon (Williams), and Kevin Magnussen (Haas), were knocked out of the top ten. 

Finally, Q3 saw Verstappen take pole position with a lap time of 1m29.421s, 0.059s quicker than Leclerc. Mercedes’ George Russell placed third, followed by Sainz. Perez placed fifth, followed by Lando Norris in sixth (McLaren). 

Saturday: The Race

For the first time in Formula One history, all drivers completed the race. Verstappen finished 1st, over 22 seconds ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez who finished 2nd. Carlos Sainz secured his place on the podium finishing 3rd, with his teammate Leclerc finishing 4th. 

The race itself was fairly uneventful, with many fans saying it felt like an extension of 2023. Ferrari continued to look like Red Bull’s closest rivals in testing, but within the race, they did not have as strong performance due to their braking issues. Leclerc was seen constantly locking up at the Turns 9/10 double left complex, which left him out of the podium fight. With Sainz also struggling, Autosport suggested that the team went too aggressive with its brake cooling allowances, which proved costly for both drivers. 

The main drama of the race was the discussions heard from both RB drivers. Tsunoda and Ricciardo disagreed over the situation which ordered Daniel Ricciardo to swap positions with his teammate, who was attempting to overtake Kevin Magnussen (Haas). 

Tsunoda said: “I was just about to overtake Magnussen [ahead in 12th], I was side-by-side on the main straight and got a driver swap [call for the] last few laps – to be honest, I did not understand what the team thought”.

Ricciardo claimed, “the call was quite expected” as “it was highly likely starting on the [used] soft meant I was going to finish the race on a new soft and have an attacking last stint”.

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Featured image courtesy of Random Winner via Pixabay. No changes have been made to this image. Image license found here.

Sophia is studying for a masters in 'Cultural and Creative Industries' at Cardiff University. She has key interests in F1 and Football and is looking to pursue a career in Sports Media. Sophia also runs her own sports news account @sophiacrothall_sport on Tik Tok.

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