Daniel Ricciardo, Australian driver for RB VCARB 01 team, set the fastest time during the initial training session of the 2024 Formula 1 season in Bahrain. The training took place during the day, while the qualifying and the race are scheduled for twilight. Despite lower than normal temperatures, with ambient temperature around 19°C and track temperature reaching 33°C, only a few teams, including RB, McLaren, and Sauber, chose to use the soft tire during the one-hour session. Ricciardo took the lead with a time of 1:32.869s, just 0.032s ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, with Ricciardo’s teammate, Oscar Piastri, in third place. RB’s Yuki Tsunoda finished fourth. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was the fastest among medium tire users, finishing in fifth place, three tenths behind Ricciardo. Max Verstappen, the current world champion, finished in sixth place and had issues with irregular gear shifts in his RB20 during the session. Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were less than a tenth of a second behind Alonso in fifth place. Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz, their respective teammates, finished ninth and 11th, with Valtteri Bottas between them. Sergio Perez finished 12th, followed by Williams’ Alex Albon in 13th, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in 14th, and Zhou Guanyu and Logan Sargeant. Alpine had a quiet start to the session, finishing six tenths of a second behind their nearest competitor, Sargeant, with Esteban Ocon in 17th place and Pierre Gasly in 18th. Haas once again had the slowest performance among the teams.
