Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was quickest in FP1, held in full daylight conditions, before Aston newcomer Alonso topped FP2 after darkness had descended.
Bahrain Grand Prix FP1 results: Perez fastest from Alonso
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Sergio Perez |
Red Bull | 21 | 1'32.758 | 210.043 | ||
| 2 |  Fernando Alonso |
Aston Martin | 22 | 1'33.196 | 0.438 | 0.438 | 209.056 |
| 3 |  Max Verstappen |
Red Bull | 21 | 1'33.375 | 0.617 | 0.179 | 208.655 |
| 4 |  Lando Norris |
McLaren | 21 | 1'34.165 | 1.407 | 0.790 | 206.904 |
| 5 |  Charles Leclerc |
Ferrari | 17 | 1'34.257 | 1.499 | 0.092 | 206.702 |
| 6 |  Lance Stroll |
Aston Martin | 17 | 1'34.298 | 1.540 | 0.041 | 206.613 |
| 7 |  Kevin Magnussen |
Haas | 20 | 1'34.402 | 1.644 | 0.104 | 206.385 |
| 8 |  Zhou Guanyu |
Alfa Romeo | 18 | 1'34.575 | 1.817 | 0.173 | 206.007 |
| 9 |  Valtteri Bottas |
Alfa Romeo | 20 | 1'34.689 | 1.931 | 0.114 | 205.759 |
| 10 | Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes | 13 | 1'34.917 | 2.159 | 0.228 | 205.265 |
| 11 | George Russell |
Mercedes | 20 | 1'34.966 | 2.208 | 0.049 | 205.159 |
| 12 |  Oscar Piastri |
McLaren | 24 | 1'34.997 | 2.239 | 0.031 | 205.092 |
| 13 |  Yuki Tsunoda |
AlphaTauri | 20 | 1'35.015 | 2.257 | 0.018 | 205.053 |
| 14 |  Nico Hulkenberg |
Haas | 22 | 1'35.043 | 2.285 | 0.028 | 204.993 |
| 15 |  Esteban Ocon |
Alpine | 20 | 1'35.105 | 2.347 | 0.062 | 204.859 |
| 16 | Nyck de Vries |
AlphaTauri | 25 | 1'35.402 | 2.644 | 0.297 | 204.222 |
| 17 | Pierre Gasly |
Alpine | 22 | 1'35.455 | 2.697 | 0.053 | 204.108 |
| 18 |  Logan Sargeant |
Williams | 24 | 1'35.749 | 2.991 | 0.294 | 203.482 |
| 19 |  Alex Albon |
Williams | 15 | 1'36.018 | 3.260 | 0.269 | 202.911 |
| 20 | Carlos Sainz |
Ferrari | 21 | 1'36.072 | 3.314 | 0.054 | 202.797 |
| View full results | |||||||
What happened in Bahrain GP Free Practice 1?
Alonso set the early bar at 1m35.048s on medium tyres for Aston Martin, before Perez took over at the top of the times with 1m34.343s on mediums, some seven tenths faster. Alonso also improved his time but was over half a second off that pace.
At the halfway point, Perez and Max Verstappen switched to soft tyres on their Red Bulls. Perez took P1 with 1m32.758s, 0.617s faster than his team-mate’s 1m33.375s, and over two seconds clear of the opposition.
Alonso then split the Red Bulls with 1m33.196s on his soft-tyre run, with Lando Norris jumping up to fourth for McLaren.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was an impressive fifth on mediums, 1.5s off the pace with 1m34.257s. Ferrari earlier trialled a single-pillar rear wing design, that proved to be very wobbly on track.
His team-mate Carlos Sainz suffered a huge spin at Turn 9 with 20 minutes remaining, as the rear of his car bottomed-out too hard over a bump. Sainz remained planted at the bottom of the times, after not running on soft tyres.
Lance Stroll was back in his Aston Martin after suffering a wrist injury in a cycling accident, which forced him to miss all of testing, but he lost the first half of the session with an ignition problem. He recovered to end the session in sixth.
Mercedes didn’t run the softs and placed 10th and 11th with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell respectively, both over 2s off the pace.
Bahrain Grand Prix FP2 results: Alonso fastest from Verstappen
| Pos | Nº | Driver | Car / Engine | Time | Delay | Laps |
| 1 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin/Mercedes | 1'30.907 | 25 | |
| 2 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Honda RBPT | 1'31.076 | 0.169 | 24 |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull/Honda RBPT | 1'31.078 | 0.171 | 26 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1'31.367 | 0.460 | 26 |
| 5 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | Haas/Ferrari | 1'31.376 | 0.469 | 25 |
| 6 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin/Mercedes | 1'31.450 | 0.543 | 28 |
| 7 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine/Renault | 1'31.475 | 0.568 | 24 |
| 8 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1'31.543 | 0.636 | 27 |
| 9 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren/Mercedes | 1'31.570 | 0.663 | 27 |
| 10 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo/Ferrari | 1'31.586 | 0.679 | 27 |
| 11 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine/Renault | 1'31.608 | 0.701 | 25 |
| 12 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo/Ferrari | 1'31.793 | 0.886 | 28 |
| 13 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1'31.882 | 0.975 | 25 |
| 14 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 1'31.956 | 1.049 | 28 |
| 15 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren/Mercedes | 1'32.024 | 1.117 | 27 |
| 16 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas/Ferrari | 1'32.110 | 1.203 | 18 |
| 17 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams/Mercedes | 1'32.440 | 1.533 | 28 |
| 18 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri/Honda RBPT | 1'32.525 | 1.618 | 27 |
| 19 | 21 | Nyck de Vries | AlphaTauri/Honda RBPT | 1'32.605 | 1.698 | 28 |
| 20 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams/Mercedes | 1'32.749 | 1.842 | 29 |
What happened in Bahrain GP Free Practice 2?
With the sun having set, track temperature tumbled to give much more reflective track conditions for qualifying and the race.
After a poor showing in FP1, Alpine went straight out on softs with Esteban Ocon producing 1m32.415s before Sainz took P1 with 1m31.956s. Leclerc, despite complaining of a clutch issue, beat that by just over a tenth with 1m31.843s.
Just before the halfway point, Stroll went to the top with 1m31.450s. The fastest times then came thick and fast, with Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) producing 1m31.376s and Perez lapping in 1m31.078s, before Alonso achieved 1m30.907s – which proved to be the quickest lap of the day.
Verstappen could only manage 1m31.076s, 0.169s down on Alonso, to go P2. Perez slipped to third, ahead of Leclerc, Hulkenberg and Stroll. Top Mercedes was Hamilton again in eighth, just behind Alpine newboy Pierre Gasly.
Stroll almost caused a big shunt earlier by cruising in the middle of the track into Turn 1, as Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) arrived in a high-speed, side-by-side duel.
