F1: Bahrain Grand Prix, Practice 3 and Qualifying: LIVE —
Friday’s practice at Bahrain was full of drama, with everything from huge crashes to even a stray dog on track.
Testing new Pirelli tyres for the 2021 season, plenty of the drivers struggled for pace and grip. In the second session, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen spun out on the final corner, but it was his teammate Alex Albon that suffered a monster shunt.
Saturday’s third practice session and qualifying promises to be just as interesting!
Follow the action in the live blog below.
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Albon suffers HEAVY crash
1:06
FRIDAY REPORT:
It was a day of inconsistent levels of action, interrupted by red flags when Alex Albon crashed his Red Bull and afterwards by a stray dog on the circuit.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets in both sessions, with Max Verstappen second in the latter session.
In FP2, his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas was third ahead of Sergio Perez of Racing Point, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauri.
Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren ahead of Lance Stroll in the second Racing Point, Daniil Kvyat in the second Alpha Tauri and the luckless Albon, who is fighting to keep his Red Bull seat, but who crashed heavily and wrecked his car.
His crash came midway through the floodlit second session at the Bahrain International Circuit at Sakhir. The right side of his Red Bull car was severely damaged and both wheels were left hanging only by their tethers.
Albon admitted he had pushed too hard when he ran off at the final corner and agreed with the universal drivers’ view on the new tyres they tested.
“The prototype tyres we used at the start — they’re not very much fun to drive on so we’ll see how it goes next year … They’re slow, and not very grippy.
Things got even stranger when the drivers returned to the track – only to be joined by an inquisitive stray dog. That led to Ferrari’s Vettel singing Baha Men’s song “Who Let the Dogs Out?”
Under-pressure Red Bull star’s lucky escape after leaving car in crumpled mess
Lewis Hamilton tries ‘very hard not to say anything’ before unleashing
Vettel amused by streaker
0:51
Bahrain GP Free Practice Two result:
1) Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:28.971
2) Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.347
3) Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) +0.365
4) Sergio Perez (Racing Point) +0.432
5) Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) +0.491
6) Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) +0.580
7) Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.870
8) Lance Stroll (Racing Point) +0.900
9) Daniil Kvyat (AlphaTauri) +0.929
10) Alexander Albon (Red Bull) +1.043
11) Esteban Ocon (Renault) +1.114
12) Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) +1.139
13) Carlos Sainz (McLaren) +1.300
14) Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +1.436
15) Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) +1.656
16) Kevin Magnussen (Haas) +1.878
17) Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) +1.957
18) Nicholas Latifi (Williams) +2.002
19) Romain Grosjean (Haas) +2.148
20) George Russell (Williams) +2.665
HOW TO WATCH
Watch every F1 session LIVE on Fox Sports and stream on Kayo.
Live coverage of FP3 begins on Fox Sports 506 from 9.45pm AEDT ahead of qualifying.
LIVE BLOG
Follow the action in the live blog below. If you can’t see the blog, click here.
