What happened in first Bahrain Grand Prix F1 practice

AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly topped the first practice session of the 2022 Formula 1 season as the championship’s new era began in earnest in Bahrain.

Key moments:

– Gasly leads Ferrari duo

– Red Bull pace appears hidden by run plan

– Alpine sidepod failure causes red flag

– Bottas limited to two laps

A significant chunk of the available running was lost early on as Esteban Ocon’s pink-coloured Alpine shed a new-spec right sidepod on the main straight, completing the rest of the lap with a gaping hole where bodywork should be and bringing out a red flag for track cleaning.

🚩 RED FLAG 🚩

Esteban Ocon loses a big chunk of sidepod 🤯

The debris litters the start-finish straight, so the session is paused as clean-up begins#BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/ZHWKqIIZzr

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 18, 2022

McLaren, which has an “interim” fix in place this weekend for its MCL36’s debilitating brake cooling problem, held a 1-2 when the red flag flew, but the medium-shod Red Bull of Max Verstappen soon usurped the top spot.

However, Verstappen never bothered with fitting new tyres in the latter half of the session, having briefly run hards before the switch to mediums under red flag, and therefore was shuffled down the order.

Mercedes’ George Russell was first to demote him, but did so only narrowly on a softer tyre, before Gasly went four tenths faster.

The Frenchman’s 1m34.193s effort remained unchallenged until the chequered flag, despite being around two and a half seconds off the fastest time from the three-day test, set by Verstappen.

The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc – who had a spin on the outside entry kerb at Turn 11 – and Carlos Sainz cemented spots in the top three after a mid-session switch to mediums, ending up 0.364s and 0.418s off Gasly but narrowly ahead of Russell.

Cheeky 360 from Charles Leclerc 🔄

But no harm done – he recovers and is now up to second quickest#BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/b9nQAsRysw

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 18, 2022

Behind Verstappen, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) completed the top 10, both having set their fastest times on softs, with Hamilton three tenths down on Russell.

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez completed the top 10, the two Red Bulls joined only by the two Haas cars in not running the soft tyre in the session.

While the field’s sole rookie Guanyu Zhou led Alfa Romeo’s charge in 11th, team-mate Valtteri Bottas had to retreat to the pits after one lap with what he reported misfire and returned only in the final 10 minutes, only to again complete no more than one lap and end his FP1 last, without a time set.

Practice 1 Results