2020 F1 Sakhir GP Friday practice results

In the first-ever F1 practice session on the short, 2.2-mile ‘outer loop’ layout of the Sakhir track, Russell took centre stage as he replaced seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who is absent while recovering from COVID-19 symptoms.

Russell worked down to a laptime of 54.546s in FP1, 0.176s faster than Verstappen with the second Red Bull of Alex Albon third quickest.

Bottas could only manage the fourth-fastest time, three tenths off his new teammate, but team chief Toto Wolff confirmed after the session that he’d suffered car damage early in the session on the bumpy track surface.

The AlphaTauris were best of the rest, with Daniil Kvyat leading Pierre Gasly, ahead of Renault’s Esteban Ocon and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

In FP2, Russell topped the timesheets again, 0.128s quicker than Verstappen this time. Sergio Perez jumped up to third for Racing Point, with Ocon fourth, ahead of Albon. Continuing his scruffy day, Bottas was only 11^th, but had times deleted for exceeding track limits and aborted another run. His fastest time was set on the hard tyre.

Of the rookies, Pietro Fittipaldi (Haas) and Jack Aitken (Williams) ended the day at the bottom of the times. Fittipaldi was 0.3s off teammate Kevin Magnussen, with Aitken 0.5s away from Nicholas Latifi.

It was a bad day for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was 10^th in FP1 and then missed almost all of FP2 with a transmission problem that the team described as a driveshaft issue.

F1 Sakhir Grand Prix Free Practice 1 results

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	George Russell		Mercedes	Mercedes	49	54.546			233.835
2	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Honda	29	54.722	0.176	0.176	233.083
3	Alex Albon		Red Bull	Honda	18	54.811	0.265	0.089	232.705
4	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	Mercedes	44	54.868	0.322	0.057	232.463
5	Daniil Kvyat		AlphaTauri	Honda	40	55.011	0.465	0.143	231.859
6	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	Honda	37	55.166	0.620	0.155	231.207
7	Esteban Ocon		Renault	Renault	49	55.273	0.727	0.107	230.760
8	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	Ferrari	40	55.281	0.735	0.008	230.726
9	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	Renault	39	55.379	0.833	0.098	230.318
10	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari	35	55.449	0.903	0.070	230.027
11	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	Mercedes	41	55.558	1.012	0.109	229.576
12	Sergio Perez		Racing Point	Mercedes	33	55.716	1.170	0.158	228.925
13	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	Renault	41	55.757	1.211	0.041	228.756
14	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	32	55.783	1.237	0.026	228.650
15	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	35	55.858	1.312	0.075	228.343
16	Lando Norris		McLaren	Renault	47	56.078	1.532	0.220	227.447
17	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	Ferrari	37	56.130	1.584	0.052	227.236
18	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	Mercedes	48	56.764	2.218	0.634	224.698
19	Pietro Fittipaldi		Haas	Ferrari	24	57.077	2.531	0.313	223.466
20	Jack Aitken		Williams	Mercedes	33	57.187	2.641	0.110	223.036
View full results

F1 Sakhir Grand Prix Free Practice 2 results

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	George Russell		Mercedes	Mercedes	48	54.713			233.121
2	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Honda	43	54.841	0.128	0.128	232.577
3	Sergio Perez		Racing Point	Mercedes	52	54.866	0.153	0.025	232.471
4	Esteban Ocon		Renault	Renault	50	54.940	0.227	0.074	232.158
5	Alex Albon		Red Bull	Honda	42	55.036	0.323	0.096	231.753
6	Daniil Kvyat		AlphaTauri	Honda	58	55.068	0.355	0.032	231.619
7	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	Mercedes	44	55.104	0.391	0.036	231.467
8	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	Renault	47	55.124	0.411	0.020	231.383
9	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	Honda	48	55.133	0.420	0.009	231.346
10	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	Renault	39	55.258	0.545	0.125	230.822
11	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	Mercedes	52	55.321	0.608	0.063	230.559
12	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	54	55.484	0.771	0.163	229.882
13	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	57	55.533	0.820	0.049	229.679
14	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	Ferrari	49	55.738	1.025	0.205	228.834
15	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	Mercedes	52	55.784	1.071	0.046	228.646
16	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	Ferrari	43	55.830	1.117	0.046	228.457
17	Lando Norris		McLaren	Renault	14	56.031	1.318	0.201	227.638
18	Pietro Fittipaldi		Haas	Ferrari	56	56.110	1.397	0.079	227.317
19	Jack Aitken		Williams	Mercedes	58	56.260	1.547	0.150	226.711
20	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari	2
View full results

F1 Sakhir Grand Prix Free Practice as it happened