The Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez (Red Bull) led the first practice session of the 2023 season, free practice 1 of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which will open the Formula 1 championship on Sunday at the Sakhir circuit, a track where the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) got a big scare and his compatriot Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) was second.

The longest season in history -23 grand prix- has begun after the shortest pre-season and the free practice sessions were like a fourth day of the tests that were held on this same track only a week ago.

With 42 degrees of temperature on the track, the Williams, with the Thai Alexander Albon at the helm, were the first to leave the garage to inaugurate the new course.

The Ferraris chose to initially test different rear wing configurations on the cars of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. They aborted early because the wing of the car that the Monegasque was driving, with a single anchor pylon, oscillated too much, so he switched to the one that the man from Madrid had, the standard of the preseason.

Sainz had one of the big scares of the session with 21 minutes to go by spinning at high speed at turn nine after noticing something strange to the rear right of the flat bottom. Fortunately, it did not have major consequences for him and he was able to go to the box. He was last (1:36.072) in a practice where his teammate finished fifth on medium compound (1:34.257).

Fernando Alonso dominated the time table at the beginning of the training session with those same tires, although, at that time, far from the test records (1:35.048).

The Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez took over (1:34.343) before putting on the soft ones, with which he established 1:32.758 as a reference. Alonso, with the same tires, was less than half a second (1:33.196), in second place, two tenths ahead of the champion of the last two World Cups, the Dutchman Max Vertstappen (Red Bull).

The double world champion’s teammate, Canadian Lance Stroll, reappeared after having improved from the wrist injury that forced him to miss pre-season training, although he had some problems in the Aston Martin that caused him to lose time in the pits in the first part of the season. the practice.

Mercedes finished the session in the middle zone, with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, tenth, and George Russell, eleventh.

As the silver arrows, Alpine maintained the discretion of the preseason in free practice 1 of the Bahrain Grand Prix, in which McLaren placed the British Lando Norris in the top positions of the time table, fourth (1: 34.165), while Australian Oscar Piastri suffered a whiplash and starred in one of the day’s excursions through the Sakhir loopholes, where the second free practice will take place at 4:00 p.m. (CET).

.1. Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull 1:32.758

.2. Fernando Alonso ESP Aston Martin 1:33.196

.3. Max Verstappen NED Red Bull 1:33.375

.4. Lando Norris GBR McLaren 1:34.165

.5. Charles Leclerc MY Ferrari 1:34.257

.6. Lance Stroll ESP Aston Martin 1:34.298

.7. Kevin Magnussen DIN Haas 1:34.402

.8. Guanyu Zhou CHN Alfa Romeo 1:34.575

.9. Valtteri Bottas FIN Alfa Romeo 1:34.689

10. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes 1:34.917

11. George Russell GBR Mercedes 1:34.966

12. Oscar Piastri AUS McLaren 1:34.997

13. Yuki Tsunoda JPN Alpha Tauri 1:35.015

14. Nico Hulkenberg GER Haas 1:35.043

15. Esteban Ocon FROM Alpine 1:35.105

16. Nyck de Vries NED Alpha Tauri 1:35.402

17. Pierre Gasly FRA Alpine 1:35.455

18. Logan Sargeant USA Williams 1:35.749

19. Alexander Albon TAI Williams 1:36.018

20. Carlos Sainz ESP Ferrari 1:36.072.