REPORT: Hot First Day of Practice Running in Bahrain

Scorching temperatures were the talk of the paddock at the start of the first day of running for the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

The opening session saw Alex Albon joined by Academy driver Luke Browning, fulfilling the team’s first of four mandated FP1 sessions for rookie drivers. With a track temperature of 48°C and air temperature at 35°C, it was a physical start to the weekend.

Alex picked up where he had left off so far this season, setting a fastest lap of 1:33.928 on soft tyres, placing him P4. Luke, meanwhile, focused mainly on procedural checks before completing a series of soft tyre push laps in the closing stages. His best time of 1:34.885 secured P13 overall – the quickest of the six rookie FP1 drivers.

Carlos Sainz returned to the cockpit for FP2, joining Alex for the more representative evening session. The pair were evenly matched during their Quali simulations, with Carlos’ 1:31.623 putting him P10, just ahead of Alex in P11 with a 1:31.696.

The session concluded with high-fuel long runs to gather valuable data for Sunday’s Grand Prix, providing a solid foundation upon which to build for the remainder of the weekend.

"We weren’t quite as competitive today as we were when we were here for pre-season testing, and we fell back a little bit in the heat," Alex shared. "The issues we’re seeing were expected though and some balance issues have been exposed.

"We only seem to have them at this track, it’s interesting. We know it’s going to be close here, but the good thing is, it’s nothing major that needs fixing; the car feels good."

Carlos continued our reaction by adding: "After skipping FP1 we got up to speed pretty quickly in the short run, and then in the long run we struggled with some car balance issues and tyres, but we’ll do some work tonight to see if we can sort them.

"The track and the car feel completely different to when we were here for testing, so we need to make a few adjustments to make sure that we hit the sweet spot tomorrow."

Finally, Luke reflected on his busy afternoon by saying: "Coming from F2 Practice to F1 Practice was tough as it was such a big step up! Saying that, it was probably harder the other way - stepping back to F2.

"It’s always nicer to go from F2 to F1, to push everything up. I think we did a good job out there; I really enjoyed it. I was in an F1 car in Monza last week for our test, so it was great to be able to apply everything I learned then to this weekend.

"Getting more mileage in was a big help. Big thanks to Williams for the opportunity!"