Ricciardo fastest for RB in windy start to practice in Bahrain

Ricciardo fastest for RB in windy start to practice in Bahrain | Formula 1

February 29, 2024

in Racing

Reading Time: 2 mins read

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Daniel Ricciardo set the quickest time for RB within the opening observe session for the Bahrain Grand Prix on mushy compound tyres.

Nevertheless the vast majority of the 20 drivers within the area selected solely to make use of the medium tyres over the opening hour of operating for the season.

Ricciardo’s 1’32.869 was the quickest time of the session, forward of the 2 McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who had been each lower than 1 / 4 of a second slower, with Yuki Tsunoda fourth within the second RB. The entire prime 4 set their finest occasions on the mushy tyres.

The primary session within the longest Method 1 season in historical past started with picture-perfect situations with the solar shining and an ambient temperature of slightly below 20C. Nevertheless, the excessive winds from final week’s pre-season check appeared returned: Piastri was warned by his McLaren staff to count on a 30kph tailwind pushing him down the again straight out of flip 10.

Nico Hulkenberg was the primary automobile out on monitor because the 2024 season formally started, setting the primary official lap time of the yr with a 1’37.931. World champion Max Verstappen set the early commonplace by posting a 1’33.749 as all 20 drivers targeted on runs on the medium compound early on within the session. Nevertheless, Verstappen was sad with the gearshifts on his new RB20 and made positive his staff knew about it.

It was a really uneventful begin to the 2024 season, with no drivers struggling any main issues with their new vehicles. There was just one transient yellow flag all session, which gave the impression to be triggered when Yuki Tsunoda ran broad on the exit of flip 11 within the ultimate ten minutes.

Solely six drivers opted to run the softs within the hour: each RBs, each McLarens and the Sauber drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu. Fernando Alonso was quickest on the mediums in fifth, forward of Verstappen in sixth, George Russell in seventh, Charles Leclerc in eighth, Lewis Hamilton ninth and Valtteri Bottas finishing the highest ten.

On the decrease finish of the occasions, the Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg sat on the backside in nineteenth and twentieth, respectively, over two seconds off the next-slowest vehicles. In testing the staff largely targeted on lengthy runs, which was its greatest weak point final yr. Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly had been additionally low down the order in seventeenth and 18th place.

Hulkenberg accomplished essentially the most laps of any driver with 27, Zhou the fewest with 16 after reporting a braking drawback early on. Williams topped the velocity lure rankings with Logan Sargeant hitting 319kph, simply forward of staff mate Alexander Albon, whereas Hulkenberg was backside with a prime velocity of 303kph.

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