The Bahrain circuit hosts the last three F1 pre-season test sessions, and on the first morning of testing we have already been able to see many interesting things but few certainties. All the spotlights (and the suspicions of its rivals) were taken by the Mercedes W13 with a radical design with very small pontoons.
Hamilton was the driver in charge of debuting it in the morning session, and in fact he went out on the track as soon as the green traffic light came on, at the same time that Gasly with the AlphaTauri also went out to roll.
The seven-time champion dedicated himself to accumulating laps and laps that were useful for Mercedes. He led the table with slow records, a 1:41.502 that Pérez would later surpass to lead with a 1:38.953 at the end of the first half hour. A few minutes later, Zhou stopped the clock in 1:35.953 to move into first place.
Without drawing too many conclusions, we saw in the new Mercedes a somewhat nervous single-seater in several of the curves of the track and that has not solved the problem of porposing that we saw in Barcelona.
In fact, that effect is still there in most of the cars, including the Ferrari with which Leclerc led the time table thanks to a 1:34.531 with C3 tires when the first two hours of activity had not yet been exceeded.
With no competitive times (Verstappen was fastest in FP1 at the 2021 Bahrain GP lapping 1:31.3), the teams insisted on long runs, and we saw numerous tire lockups and slight spin-outs in Turns 1, 2, 4 and 9 But if there was a conflictive lap it was turn 10, where precisely Hamilton, as well as Vettel, Checo Pérez and the rest of the drivers, had problems in more than one lap.
We saw numerous aero grilles on the cars and wax everywhere, proof that teams are still looking for that ‘sweet spot’ in their designs. In addition, it was striking how, beyond the ‘bounce’ called porpoising, several cars touched the track a lot with the bottom at certain points on the circuit.
The session seemed to liven up in the final hour, with Alex Albon putting the Williams second, five tenths behind Leclerc. Wearing a novel helmet in support of Ukraine and in defense of peace, Vettel improved his time with 38 minutes remaining to move into third, and then did so with 17 minutes remaining to stay 1.1s behind Leclerc.
At the wheel of the Red Bull RB18, Pérez was the most active driver, with no less than 69 laps, and closed the morning in fourth place, improving with 15 minutes remaining, although 1,446 behind the Ferrari and more than three tenths ahead of Hamilton. , fifth. Behind them, sixth, was an Ocon who only did one installation lap in the first 60 minutes, but ended up exceeding 40 laps throughout the morning. Alpine did use the DRS this time and the Frenchman was 2,237 behind the Ferrari mark.
Despite the runaways and crashes, it was a quiet morning in terms of interruptions, and there were no red flags to stop the session. The only setback was for Guanyu Zhou when his car stopped at the start of the pitlane before the first two and a half hours were up. However, the Alfa Romeo was able to get out again and in fact was one of the drivers who lapped the most before leaving the car in the hands of Bottas for the afternoon.
Zhou finished seventh, ahead only of Norris and Pierre Gasly. The Briton was included at the last minute in the morning line-ups, having to take the place that was scheduled for Daniel Ricciardo in the McLaren F1 and that the smiling Australian could not take due to being unwell.
For his part, Gasly, also three seconds behind Leclerc, closed a table that had nine drivers in the absence of Haas, whose material was delayed in arriving in Bahrain and who will not shoot until the afternoon, with Pietro Fittipaldi at the wheel.
Formula 1 tested the Virtual Safety Car system forcing the drivers to go slower with eight minutes remaining, although the neutralization did not last long and there were more than five minutes left with a green flag in which, however, no one improved.
The session resumes at 3:00 p.m. (local) after an hour break for lunch, and in addition to Fittipaldi we will see Carlos Sainz Jr., Fernando Alonso, George Russell, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas and, if he is recovered, Daniel Ricciardo. For their part, Checo Pérez, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly will repeat in their teams.
Times, positions and laps of the 2022 F1 tests in Bahrain (Thursday morning)
| Pilot | Equipment | laps | Time (tyre) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Ferrari | 64 | 1’34″531Â  |
| 2 |  Alex Albon |
williams | 53 | 1’35″070  |
| 3 |  Â Sebastian Vettel |
Aston Martin | 39 | 1’35″706Â |
| 4 |  Sergio Perez |
Red Bull | 70 | 1’35″977  |
| 5 |  Â Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes | 62 | 1’36″365Â |
| 6 |
|
Alpine | 42 | 1’36″768Â |
| 7 |
|
Alfa Romeo | 54 | 1’37″164 |
| 8 | Â Lando Norris |
McLaren | 21 | 1’37″580Â |
| 9 |  Pierre Gasly |
AlphaTauri | 44 | 1’37 “888 |
| 10 |
|
Haas | 0 | No time |
 Charles Leclerc
Guanyu Zhou
Pietro FittipaldiPhotos from the 2022 F1 test morning in Bahrain
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
