Formula 1 News: Ricciardo tops opening practice in Bahrain

Daniel Ricciardo, using a set of soft Pirelli tires, turned the fastest lap of 1m32.869s to top opening practice of the Bahrain GP in the heat of the day.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, also on soft Pirelli tires, were 2nd and 3rd, 0.032s and 0.244s behind Ricciardo respectively.

4th was Ricciardo’s Visa Cash App teammate Yuki Tsunoda, also on the soft red tires, 0.314s behind Ricciardo.

Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen were 5th and 6th on the medium Pirelli tires.

“Very inconsistent downshifts again,” said Verstappen, the Dutchman having run two sets of medium tires.

Due to the holy month of Ramadan, the first practice sessions are taking place on Thursday, with the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia scheduled for Saturday.

Ahead of qualifying, the conditions will cool as the sun sets, the teams know what they have to work with and they’ll be pretty busy packing in race simulation runs and quali laps in those representative conditions.

2024 Bahrain GP Practice 1 Results