Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate George Russell took the top two places in Thursday practice ahead of the opening Grand Prix of the 2024 Formula One season in Bahrain on Saturday.
Seven-time champion Hamilton finished 0.206 seconds ahead of Russell, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso 0.08secs further behind and reigning champion Max Verstappen almost half a second off the Briton in sixth.
Verstappen, who is the clear favourite to win again this season, appeared to be quickest as in the later race-simulation runs later.
“The car was feeling good but we can’t get ahead of ourselves,” Hamilton said. “We know there is more to extract and our long run pace isn’t in the fight with the Red Bulls.
“Overall, though, I’m feeling much happier with the car than last year. We’ve made some good improvements and it feels much more like a race car.”
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Russell reiterated Hamilton’s view, emphasising that Mercedes are “not going to get carried away” after the first day of practice.
“Our qualifying pace did look strong,” he said. “We made some changes from the test and the improvement exceeded our expectations.
“But ultimately our long run pace is where it counts. Verstappen looked comfortably quickest and it was very tight with the Ferraris, the McLarens, and the Aston Martins. So we’ve likely got a real fight on our hands there.”
That’s a wrap on Thursday’s sessions 🎬
Quali day tomorrow 💪 PIC.TWITTER.COM/KEZBKLQGAI
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) FEBRUARY 29, 2024
Verstappen assessed his performance as “not too bad”. “It’s very close,” he told the official F1 channel.
“Maybe some people around us already turned up the engine a bit, in terms of top speed. But we just focused on ourselves.
“There were a few little balance issues from front to rear but nothing big. It’s just about trying to find that sweet spot.
“Especially around here, with the rough Tarmac, once you get it into that sweet spot you just pick up time. That’s what we’ll try to focus on a little bit more for tomorrow.”
Bahrain Grand Prix: Verstappen feels Red Bull ‘can do better’
“It’s going to be very close in qualifying. So that’s, I think, going to be very nice. And then the long run, I was a bit happier about that. But again, there are a few little things that we can do better.”
“It’s not too far away, it’s just trying to get into it and feel a little bit happier with the car. But at the end of the day, you also just want to focus a bit on the long runs, because that’s where the car really needs to work.
“Qalifying is important but we need to make sure that the car is in good shape for the race.”
Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg was seventh in front of Alonso team-mate Lance Stroll, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
