Alonso splits Red Bulls in first F1 2023 practice in Bahrain

Sergio Perez led the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso in the opening practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend as Formula 1’s 2023 season officially got underway.

Key moments:

> Perez dominates session

> Aston impresses with Alonso and Stroll

> Leclerc best of the medium-tyre runners

> Big spin for Sainz

Mexican Perez was the clear standout of the session in the new Red Bull RB19, taking the initial lead with his first run on the medium tyre and then consolidating his position with an improvement on softs.

He was quicker than his defending team-mate champion Max Verstappen through both runs, the eventual gap on softs stood at six tenths.

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And that gap proved big enough for Fernando Alonso to slot in the much-hyped Aston Martin AMR23 into second place with 10 minutes of the clock, albeit with Perez still four tenths clear.

Shortly after going straight on at Turn 1, Lando Norris allayed the fears somewhat about McLaren’s early-season shape by placing fourth, albeit 1.4 seconds off.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the best of the drivers who forewent running on softs. The Monegasque kicked the session off with a run using a single-pylon rear wing construction that Ferrari only briefly trialled in testing – and it wobbled massively in corners, with Leclerc reverting to a double-pylon version for his second run.

He placed fifth on mediums, a tenth behind Norris, while team-mate Carlos Sainz was 20th and last, having wasted his fresh-tyre run with a spectacular 360-degree spin turning into the fast Turn 9 left-hander.

Carlos Sainz goes for a spin 🔁

He recovers and is now heading back to the pits for some fresh tyres#BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/AOlgr4tPjz

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 3, 2023

Testing absentee Lance Stroll was mileage-limited early in the session by “an ignition issue” but moved up to sixth on softs in the end, and looks on course to race in Bahrain with screws in his wrist after an off-season accident required surgery.

A significant share of teams deciding not to use softs meant the competitive picture was even more muddled than it normally is in FP1, and Mercedes’ placement in 10th and 11th was a clear outlier, both its drivers logging their fastest laps on mediums.

The top nine was completed by Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and the Alfa Romeo pairing of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, Zhou reported a pedal position issue that Alfa told him could only be fixed for FP2.

Lewis Hamilton was 2.2s off the pace in 10th, having posted what looked a smaller-than-expected improvement on his second run.

Practice 1 Results