Norris goes Quickest During an FP1 Full of Rookies

The first practice session of the Bahrain race weekend was relatively calm, but there was six new faces for FP1, as rookies all got an outing in their respective teams’ cars. For Red Bull, Ayumu Iwasa replaced Verstappen, down at Ferrari Dino Beganovic took Leclerc’s spot, and at Mercedes Fred Vesti joined Antonelli. Felipe Drugovich got some running time in the Aston Martin alongside Stroll, and Williams let Luke Browning replace Carlos Sainz. The last rookie is Ryo Hirakawa, who we saw previously in an Alpine before moving to Haas and is paired with Ocon for FP1. Besides the excitement of seeing the rookies compete for the fastest time, early in the session saw Kimi Antonelli unfortunately lose power in his Mercedes and couldn’t rejoin the practice. He’ll be hoping that the car will be ready in time to get some running time in FP2. Once most of the drivers put on the soft tires, Norris set the fastest lap and was able to hold that position till the end of the session. Behind him was a shocking Pierre Gasly, who was quite quick on softs, and Lewis Hamilton in third, after seeming unhappy with the Ferrari to start.

Below are the full results of the first free practice session in Bahrain.