So, it begins. Formula 1’s 2024 season has now officially kicked off after the opening two free practice sessions in Bahrain, albeit in an atypical Thursday slot, the opening two of races in the Middle East have been shuffled back by a day each to ensure that the F1 rounds do not clash with Ramadan.
Of the three practice sessions held during the Bahrain weekend, only one is of any real benefit; FP1 and FP3 offer little insight in their late-afternoon scheduling, as the circuit sizzles under the beating sun. Since the drivers enjoy cooler climes in qualifying and the race as the sun has long since slipped down the horizon, FP2 is historically the best gauge of what to expect in the crunch sessions later in the weekend.
Both soft-tyre hot laps and longer runs were crammed into the twilight session, offering a slightest glimpse of the relative performance data across the field, although it could be suggested that a few teams are continuing to mask their hands somewhat. With expectations that Red Bull is set for another dominant season reaching a near-unanimous consensus, it seems that the Milton Keynes outfit has been the team most keen to veil its absolute maximum in performance.
Hamilton set the pace for Mercedes on Thursday
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The story of the day
A gauntlet was thrown down by Lewis Hamilton at the start of FP2. As ambient conditions had swiftly dropped to below 18 degrees C, the field was somewhat split on their strategies: a handful of drivers emerged for their preliminary runs on the medium compound, but the more big-ticket runners opened on soft tyres to conduct some early qualifying simulations.
The Haas drivers had also started with the C3 compound and both Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen found their way to the top of the order, but the times swiftly fell and prompted a fleeting tug-of-war between the Ferrari drivers and Sergio Perez over the timing board’s zenith. Charles Leclerc settled on a 1m31.578s to briefly win that, before Hamilton slid in with his 1m30.751s baseline time on his first effort. This was two tenths faster than the best FP2 time from 2023, but at the very least suggested that Hamilton had immediate confidence in his Mercedes.
The same couldn’t quite be said about George Russell, who suffered with a lack of traction at the start of his first flyer having arguably fluffed his lines in his preparation lap. There was improvement in his second run…
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