2021 Bahrain GP, Ferrari first practice report: Charles P5, Carlos P8. Ferrari first practice report.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set the pace for Red Bull in the opening practice session of the new Formula 1 season ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Verstappen was a comfortable three-tenths-of-a-second clear ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas with a lap of one minute 31.394secs.

Despite the conditions being wholly unrepresentative given qualifying and the race is run in the cooler evening climes, the drivers wasted no time in heading out on to the track that had a temperature of 46.5 degrees centigrade and with the air at 36. With both practice sessions on Friday for this season now cut from 90 minutes to one hour, it means all running is crucial for the team for gathering data.

Charles Leclerc finished in fifth position, with a personal best lap time of 1m31.993s, almost six tenths behind Max Verstappen best time. Carlos Sainz was 8th (1m32.366s)

The drivers will now turn their attention to the second free practice session which will occur later this afternoon.

Full practice results for the Bahrain Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit, the opening round of the 2021 F1 world championship season: