Gasly tops opening practice in Bahrain

Pierre Gasly has ended the opening practice session of the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix fastest for Scuderia AlphaTauri.

The Frenchman headed the Ferrari pairing of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz at the end of a comparatively unrepresentative session.

Held in the mid-afternoon sun, the track temperature and ambient conditions were notably different to those that will be seen during qualifying and the race, both of which are held in the evening.

Nonetheless, Gasly made the most of the conditions to post a 1:34.193, more than 0.3s clear of Leclerc.

After six days of pre-season running, it was a busy start with more than half the field heading straight out on track.

It was short lived as an early red flag was shown when Esteban Ocon’s sidepod shattered on the front straight.

The Alpine left debris on circuit, both small shards and a large piece of carbon fibre, giving officials little choice but to interrupt running.

A 15-minute delay followed as circuit was cleared before the green flag was shown with 40 minutes remaining in the session.

Lap times were modest, Verstappen’s early best of 1:34.742, set midway through the session, compared with the 1:33.105s set by Sergio Perez at lunchtime on the final day of pre-season testing a week ago.

That time was set on the medium compound tyres before George Russell moved things on to 1:34.629s on a set of the mediums.

A spin for Leclerc saw a brief yellow flag period, the Ferrari driver picking up the throttle with his rear wheels on the exit kerb at Turn 11 which pitched him around.

Inside the final 15 minutes of the session, Gasly went fastest with a 1:34.193s on a set of soft compound tyres.

Soon after, both Ferraris improved with Leclerc second, 0.364s off the session’s best, and Sainz half a tenth further back.

Elsewhere, McLaren ended the session with just the 16th and 17th best times, Lando Norris clear of Daniel Ricciardo, as the team worked to understand a brake upgrade for this weekend.

Nico Hulkenberg recorded 23 laps as he makes a cameo with Aston Martin in place of Sebastian Vettel, the German logging the 14th best time.

Valtteri Bottas had a nightmare session as his Alfa Romeo Sauber suffered a misfiring as he exited the pits to start the session.

He returned to the track with just eight minutes remaining but the problem was not resolved and the Finn promptly toured back to the garage, his session over.

Practice continues in Bahrain with Free Practice 2 from 02:00 AEDT.

Results: Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix, Free Practice 1