Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

Ricciardo fastest but fault halts Verstappen in first practice

2018 Bahrain Grand Prix first practice

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Red Bull ended the first practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix with one car at the top of the times and the other at the bottom.

Daniel Ricciardo set the quickest lap time during the first 90 minutes of running. But Max Verstappen spent almost the entire session in the garage after his car failed on its installation lap.

Fernando Alonso, McLaren, Bahrain International Circuit, 2018
Bahrain Grand Prix practice in pictures
Verstappen had to push his RB14 back into the pits, with assistance from a few marshals, after an electrical problem caused a loss of power early in the session.

Lap times improved quickly in hot conditions at the Bahrain International Circuit, with track temperatures peaking at 40C. Ricciardo was the last of the front-running drivers to set a time and dislodged Valtteri Bottas from the top spot by three-tenths of a second.

The Mercedes driver was followed closely by the Ferrari pair, Kimi Raikkonen narrowly out-pacing Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton was almost a second off his team mate after a scruffy initial lap on soft tyres.

Romain Grosjean put his Haas sixth quickest and was the highest driver on the times sheets who set his lap time on super-soft tyres. However Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly owed his seventh place to a particularly good run on the soft tyres. Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas and the Renault pair completed the top 10.

Charles Leclerc was 12th-fastest Sauber despite suffering a spin at turn seven. He also had to pit to correct his steering wheel position which was out of alignment.

Moments before Leclerc’s spin, Lance Stroll committed the same error. He ended the session as the fastest of the two William drivers.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
13Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’31.06014
277Valtteri BottasMercedes1’31.3640.30424
37Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’31.4580.39818
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1’31.4700.41017
544Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’32.2721.21221
68Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’32.5161.45623
710Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’32.7791.71926
855Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’32.8851.82521
920Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’32.9711.91119
1027Nico HulkenbergRenault1’33.1042.04418
1114Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’33.2232.16324
1216Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’33.2782.21820
132Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’33.3642.30425
1418Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’33.3792.31922
1535Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’33.4672.40729
1628Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’33.4972.43727
179Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’33.5082.44822
1811Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’33.6622.60226
1931Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’33.7942.73423
2033Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer

First practice visual gaps

Daniel Ricciardo – 1’31.060

+0.304 Valtteri Bottas – 1’31.364

+0.398 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’31.458

+0.410 Sebastian Vettel – 1’31.470

+1.212 Lewis Hamilton – 1’32.272

+1.456 Romain Grosjean – 1’32.516

+1.719 Pierre Gasly – 1’32.779

+1.825 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’32.885

+1.911 Kevin Magnussen – 1’32.971

+2.044 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’33.104

+2.163 Fernando Alonso – 1’33.223

+2.218 Charles Leclerc – 1’33.278

+2.304 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’33.364

+2.319 Lance Stroll – 1’33.379

+2.407 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’33.467

+2.437 Brendon Hartley – 1’33.497

+2.448 Marcus Ericsson – 1’33.508

+2.602 Sergio Perez – 1’33.662

+2.734 Esteban Ocon – 1’33.794

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

2018 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “Ricciardo fastest but fault halts Verstappen in first practice”

  1. Both McLarens were very nervous in braking zones. We’ll see if they fix the issues in the second practice.

    1. They didn’t look particularly impressive. Haas and Renault both looked better balanced and quicker overall. It is just FP1 though, generally FP2 has conditions that are more representative.

  2. Was there any mention of why only Alonso’s car was running the new sidepod turning vane? Can’t see any mention of it anywhere.

  3. That Red Bull was mighty in Sector 2. I think they were 4 tenths quicker than the Ferraris in that sector alone.

  4. Max was clearly pushing his car too hard again.

    1. You get an electrical problem by pushing your car too hard?

      1. It’s a joke

        he was pushing his car back to the pits and people were saying this last year when he had his stroke of bad luck

        1. Subtle, clever jokes don’t work on the internet. :)

          1. @geemac, but I still like them, this one made me smile, maybe because I had read he had to push it back to the pits.

        2. Oh, that’s actually good. If i had only seen footage of him pushing his car….

  5. 7-17 within a second. Crazy.

    1. @ruliemaulana yeah that’s the first thing I noticed! There are no backmackers this year, only a top 3 and a midfield. Interesting as it will make the role of the drivers very important.

    2. @ruliemaulana Just a shame it isn’t 1-17.

    3. did you mean 7-19 ?

  6. @keithcollantine Would it be hard to add a visualization for the scale of the x axis in this graph? For example with seconds (eyeballed) like this: https://imgur.com/a/oCPvP Maybe half or quater seconds make more sense? Or maybe being able to drag your mouse horizontally which would show the time for that distance? :)

  7. It might still be too soon but I’m happy for Sauber, they are finally showing enough progress to fight for midfield. Charles impressed me on first round, it looks he will do the same this round

Comments are closed.