18/03/2022
NEWS STORY
The first Friday of the 2022 season saw Scuderia Ferrari finish both free practice sessions at the Bahrain International Circuit in second and third places. Today, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz tested all three tyre compounds available while working on set-up for Sunday's race and for qualifying, which starts tomorrow at 18 local (16 CET).
In the first session, the weather was cooler than average, with air temperature never more than 21 degrees, while the track was at 33. The surface was rather dusty after strong winds in recent days. On his first run, Charles' car was fitted with "rakes" at the rear of the car, to take some measurements and both drivers started out on the Hard tyres. However, the session had to be red flagged almost immediately because of debris on track and after a rather long ten minutes, practice resumed with Charles and Carlos still on the Hards. They then switched to Medium tyres for the second part of the session. The first run on this compound was not the best for both drivers, given that Leclerc had a spin and Sainz encountered traffic. However, matters soon improved and they set their best times: Charles a 1:34.557 and Carlos a 1:34.611. Charles did 22 laps, Carlos 23.
The second session got underway at 18 local, with Charles and Carlos again running identical programmes. Both drivers took to the track on Medium tyres, to go for a flying lap time immediately. The Monegasque stopped the clocks in 1:33.121, while the Spaniard posted a 1:33.837. In the second part of the session, both F1-75s were fitted with Soft tyres to prepare for tomorrow's qualifying which takes place at the same time of day, 18 local (16 CET). On his first set, Leclerc did a 1:32.263, before immediately getting down to 1:32.023, which would be his best time. Sainz did not get a perfect lap and managed a 1:33.065. Carlos then came in for a new set of Softs with which he did a 1:32.520, good enough for third fastest. The two Scuderia drivers then went for a long run on the softest compound: Charles completed 20 laps and Carlos 22.
Charles Leclerc: Our first two sessions have gone rather well, without any issues. We seem to be quite competitive, but we have to keep in mind that it is still early to draw any conclusions.
I am quite confident in the car and it felt good overall. We tested many things and worked on the car a lot since the first session. We made good progress and have to keep pushing to find small details ahead of qualifying tomorrow.
Carlos Sainz: FP1 went well, the feeling with the car was good and an improvement from testing. Unfortunately, in FP2 this good feeling went away a bit, we didn't nail the set-up and I struggled to put a clean lap together.
We definitely need to have a close look at that tonight. I'm confident we can get back to the feeling from this morning and we'll be ready for qualifying.
Check out our Friday gallery from Bahrain, here.