Verstappen quickest for Red Bull as sandstorm hits Bahrain test

35 comments on “Verstappen quickest for Red Bull as sandstorm hits Bahrain test”

1. 

   P. Petterson (@petterson)
   12th March 2021, 16:24

   Maybe for once Red Bull can start this season well, without having to improve on their car constantly to catch-up to Mercedes.
   1. 

      Balue (@balue)
      12th March 2021, 16:49

      @petterson fingers crossed
2. 

   Omar R (@)
   12th March 2021, 16:25

   Maybe it wasn’t a sandstorm. Maybe Mercedes brought too many sandbags and some broke out.
   1. 

      David BR (@david-br)
      12th March 2021, 16:35

      @omarr-pepper nice :o)
   2. 

      Mayrton
      12th March 2021, 16:39

      :-)
   3. 

      hoshino
      12th March 2021, 17:03

      Comment of the day, week and, probably, month.
   4. 

      Dave
      12th March 2021, 18:21

      Brilliant!
   5. 

      Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
      12th March 2021, 19:01

      Nailed it
   6. 

      Mog
      12th March 2021, 19:19

      Brilliant. Just brilliant.
   7. 

      V
      12th March 2021, 19:46

      Nice one :))
      I hope they keep few san bags on board for few initial races, before their “sudden” come back. That would get many people excited and hopeful
   8. 

      MCG (@malrg)
      12th March 2021, 19:54

      Exactly
   9. 

      Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
      13th March 2021, 2:55

      Broke out to the sound of Darude.
      1. 

         Esploratore (@esploratore)
         13th March 2021, 4:51

         Ahah, so true.
3. 

   Robbie (@robbie)
   12th March 2021, 16:29

   Yes of course it’s just testing, but as a fan it is always a lot nicer to see your man/team at the top than not. What will we in our armchairs learn from this so far? Very little other than they managed a ton of laps, both RBR and AT, so that bodes well for reliability (depending of course on the amount they were stressing the pu/gearbox), which of course always bodes well for them gathering vital data.

   Nice to see Mercedes struggle for a change, but of course that is said acknowledging that may very well change tomorrow or the next day, and for Bahrain. They are after all the reigning benchmark and that needs to be respected until someone shows otherwise.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore)
      13th March 2021, 4:51

      Indeed, nice to see mercedes struggle is the key point!
4. 

   Balue (@balue)
   12th March 2021, 16:52

   Just realized F1TV was sending live the whole practice. So enjoyable. Even Brundle was on.
   1. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      12th March 2021, 17:23

      I agree, it was surprisingly good to have running in the background @balue.
   2. 

      erikje
      12th March 2021, 20:43

      Not sure if you had the same experience but there was some troublesome sound several times. doubling the voices
      Echos or very low volume interviews..
   3. 

      Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
      13th March 2021, 3:00

      @balue It was, and Brundle was not grumpy at all.
      And Croft didn’t made me contemplate turning off commentary, Buxton was more cringy.
5. 

   Jim
   12th March 2021, 16:54

   The article mentions the circuit lights being turned on. Do these practice sessions happen at night as well? If so, I could see how that creates data comparison issues as you always hear the commentators talk about non representative conditions during P1/3 at places like Bahrain & Singapore
   1. 

      Jere (@jerejj)
      12th March 2021, 17:07

      @Jim The running ends at 19:00 (local time) each day, and sunset time today was 17:45, 17:45 tomorrow, and 17:46 on Sunday, so yes, floodlit running happens in this test.
      Singapore is a different case from the Gulf region as the ambient temp stays relatively stable throughout the day, unlike Bahrain and Abu Dhabi in the afternoon versus evening. Last year was an exception, but usually.
6. 

   papaya
   12th March 2021, 17:08

   Hooray, the first time Mercedes on the bottom of accumulated mileage list, perhaps their domination would be ended this year, lol.
   1. 

      Jacqueline Fowler (@silverstone)
      12th March 2021, 18:09

      I hope so too, but don’t hold your breath lol. It is very early!
7. 

   Mark (@mrcento)
   12th March 2021, 18:40

   Here we go again. Like clockwork. Every pre season.

   Mercedes trundling around in the middle of the time sheets and the car looking a bit tricky, Getting everyones hopes up that we might have some competition on our hands.

   Only for them to rock up at the first race with a few add ons that transforms the car to one that looks on rails, turn everything up and be over half a second a lap faster than anything else.
   1. 

      Mike
      12th March 2021, 19:01

      Yes, except this time they are at the bottom of the lap count and their car looked terrible on track!
      1. 

         Mashiat (@mashiat)
         12th March 2021, 19:18

         That’s exactly what was said in 2019 and look how that ended.
8. 

   t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
   12th March 2021, 19:32

   I never pay any attention to these times, I mean Alfa Romeo were top on one of the test days last year and we all know how 2020 went for them! I’m sure Merc will still be the team to beat come qualifying in a couple of weeks time.
   1. 

      Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
      12th March 2021, 21:07

      I agree, headline-times don’t mean anything in testing, but that wasn’t Mercedes’ problem today.
      Their poor mileage along with the car looking to lack grip compared to other cars (not just the Red Bull) is very unusual for Mercedes. Although they’ve rarely headed the timing sheets in the past few years at testing, they always tried to put in as much laps as possible and their car was very reliable. So far that hasn’t been the case (still very early to tell, I know).
      The long runs offer a much better comparison and even there it didn’t look too good for Mercedes. Verstappen, Hamilton and Sainz did a comparable long run in the afternoon (in terms of stint length, obviously we don’t know fuel loads and engine modes), where they ran without DRS and set several laps in a row. While Verstappen lapped consistently in the in the 1:34s (on C3 tyres), Hamilton only managed 1:35s and 1:36s (on C2 tyres) and even Sainz (also C3s) lapped quicker than Hamilton and pretty quickly closed the gap to the Mercedes.

      Usually I’d say that’s just Mercedes sandbagging, but I’m not so sure about that anymore. Red Bull looked very quick and reliable today, it definitely won’t be as easy for Mercedes to beat them as was the case in the last couple of years.
9. 

   NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
   12th March 2021, 20:02

   I can hardly believe my observation… But is Mercedes struggling?
10. 

    juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
    12th March 2021, 20:53

    Looks like they left Russell’s pedals in the car :)
11. 

    ian dearing
    12th March 2021, 21:05

    I see the new seat and peddle set up was Hamilton’s idea. It seemed to work back at the factory, but before the first lap was out he realised it was a mistake.
12. 

    Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
    12th March 2021, 22:30

    I’m happy about McLaren. Considering the engine supply change, they were immediately up to speed and kept the pace Max had at all times – all the while having no issues, at least no significant ones we would know of. An exceptional first day.
13. 

    kpcart
    13th March 2021, 3:31

    The only thing I’m taking from the lap times is that McLaren looks to have transitioned without a problem to Mercedes power.
    1. 

       Mayrton
       13th March 2021, 8:14

       To be fair, that is the only thing we can take from all of this. Hilaric how these track side reporters can turn it into anything more
14. 

    Esploratore (@esploratore)
    13th March 2021, 4:52

    That’s how you do, verstappen! Although don’t count mercedes out.

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