Perez leads the pack at BIC in first practice of new F1 season

Sergio Perez was quickest today in the first Formula 1 practice session of the season in the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2023.

Perez powered his Red Bull Racing RB19 contender to the top of the timesheet with a fastest lap of one minute 32.758 seconds.

The Sakhir Grand Prix winner in 2020 was 0.438s ahead of two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso, who is in his first grand prix weekend with Aston Martin.

Double world champion Max Verstappen was third 0.617s back as Red Bull are living up to their tag as early-season favourites.

Lando Norris of McLaren followed in fourth 1.407s from Perez, while Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari 1.499s adrift.

The top 10 in the session classification was completed by Lance Stroll (+1.540s) of Aston Martin, Kevin Magnussen (+1.644s) of Haas, the Alfa Romeo pair of Zhou Guanyu (+1.817s) and Valtteri Bottas (+1.931s), and Mercedes’s seven-time world championship Lewis Hamilton (+2.159s).

Eleventh through 20th, respectively, were George Russell of Mercedes, McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri, Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri, the returning Nico Hulkenberg for Haas, Esteban Ocon for Alpine, Nyck de Vries in the other AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly in the second Alpine, the Williams tandem of Logan Sargeant and Alexander Albon, and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari.