F1 is back, but this year things changed a lot…the cars, the team’s line-ups, the regulations…starting with 2022 the cars have a completely different design compared to what we saw in the previous years.
I think we kinda made an idea of what could we expect this year at the Barcelona and Bahrain texting the previous weeks. But for sure this weekend was a surprise for all of us…
At the beginning of the week, we found out that Sebastian Vettel was tested positive for COVID-19 and a late call up from Aston Martin, Nico Hulkenberg will replace Vettel this weekend. (Daniel Ricciardo was also tested positive last week, and that resulted in missing the F1 testing but he is now back on track)
Let’s start with Friday!
First Free Practice of the year… Pierre Gasly set the fastest time 1.34.193s on soft tyres, followed by the Monegasque Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the top 3.
After a few minutes in FP1, red flags were out after pieces of bodywork from Ocon’s Alpine flew, and couldn’t be collected under double waved yellow flags. The session was back underway, Mercedes were still struggling with ‘porpoising’ (the violent bouncing motion of the car on its suspension seen mainly on the straights – occurs when the airflow through the underbody venturi tunnels, which pulls the car to the ground, stalls.), the problem occurred since Barcelona but they still didn’t fix it.
George Russell led the Mercedes in 4th place, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton was in 7th place behind the 2021 WDC Max Verstappen (5th) and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (6th), Fernando Alonso was eight quickest followed by Tsunoda(9th) and Perez (10th). The rookie, Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) finished 11th quickest, followed by Esteban Ocon(12th), Nicholas Latifi (13th) and Vettel’s sub Nico Hulkenberg(14th). The other Williams, Alex Albon was 2 places behind his teammate (15th). The two McLarens were behind in 16th (Norris) and 17th (Ricciardo) place followed by the two Haas’ Mick Schumacher (18th) and Kevin Magnussen (19th). The last was Valterri Bottas who did only two laps and didn’t set a time because he had to retire his Alfa Romeo due to a misfire.
Second Free Practice, also on Friday…was topped by Max Verstappen and the two Ferraris. The reigning champion set the fastest time 1.31.936s on soft tyres, Leclerc was just 0.087s behind and his teammate Carlos Sainz half a second away on third. George Russell led the Mercedes again in fourth place, while Lewis Hamilton was between the two Haas’ in 9th place (MSC 8th, MAG 10th). Alonso(5th) was 0.941s behind, followed by Valtteri Bottas (6th) and Sergio Perez(7th). The first outside top 10 was Lando Norris (11th) followed by Esteban Ocon (12th) and the two Alpha Tauri’s (GAS 13th, TSU 14th). Guanyu Zhou(15th) was the one to lead the 2s gap, followed by the two Aston Martins (STR 16th, HUL 17th), Daniel Ricciardo (18th) between the ‘greens’ and Williams who were last in 19th (LAT) and 20th (ALB) place.
Saturday
Third Free Practice…was topped again by Max Verstappen with 1.32.544s and Charles Leclerc who was 0.096s behind him, this time the third place was taken by the other Redbull Driver, Sergio Perez. George Russell kept his pace in 4th place like the other FPs, in 5th place was Carlos Sainz followed by the seventh-time WDC, Lewis Hamilton. In 7th place: Kevin Magnussen followed by Hamilton’s ex-teammate, Valterri Bottas (8th) and in 9th the other Alfa Romeo, Guanyu Zhou. The top 10 was closed by Lance Stroll and Lando Norris (11th) between the two Aston Martins (HUL 12th). In 13th place was Pierre Gasly followed by Mick Schumacher (14th) and Daniel Ricciardo (15th) last positions were occupied by Alpine and Williams. (ALO 16th, ALB 17th, OCO 18th, LAT 19th).
Yuki Tsunoda didn’t go out on track because his Alpha Tauri ‘sprung a hydraulic leak’. The driver barely got out of the garage before the mechanics had to wheel him back inside.
QUALIFYING
LECLERC TAKES POLE IN BAHRAIN!
As in the free practices, the grid is led by Ferrari and Redbull. Leclerc was fastest in qualifying with 1.30.558s with Verstappen right behind him with 1.30.681s and Sainz in third by 0.129s.
In Q1, both Ferraris was at the top of the timesheet. Haas and Alfa Romeo were a surprise as they both got into Q2, Valterri Bottas went 4th ahead of his ex-team who was situated in P9 and P10, behind Norris who was P7 while his teammate got out of Q1 in P18 between the two Aston Martins and in P20 Nicholas Latifi. Out in Q1 was also Alpha Tauri’s Tsunoda.
In Q2, Verstappen set the fastest time 1.30.767s followed by Sainz and Leclerc. Perez finished in 4th followed by the two Mercedes and Magnussen who was ahead of Alonso and Gasly. Out of Q2 were Ocon, Schumacher, Norris, Albon and Zhou.
In Q3, Leclerc got pole followed by the 2021 champion and his teammate. Besides Sainz will start Perez, followed by the two ex-teammates Hamilton and Bottas. Magnussen will start 7th, besides Alonso (8th) and the last in top 10 Russell and Gasly.
