The first practice session ahead of this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix on the outer layout at this circuit was the best possible start for George Russell. He set the fastest time on a 55.030 and seemed to get accustomed to the W11 quickly. He topped the session ahead of the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon in second and third.
It was not a good session for Valtteri Bottas, he could not dial into the new track, making multiple mistakes and ending up fourth ahead of the two AlphaTauri cars of Daniil Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen. Esteban Ocon set the seventh fastest time ahead of Sebastian Vettel in eighth, Kimi Raikkonen in ninth and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top 10.
Racing Point and McLaren did not have a great start with both cars from each team finishing outside the top 10, whilst Pietro Fittipaldi and Jack Aitken had reasonable starts to their debut weekends.
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