Ferrari

Yuki Tsunoda labelled the start to his Bahrain Grand Prix weekend as “pretty messy” whilst bemoaning “miscommunication” at Red Bull which cost him lap time.

The Japanese driver finished the opening practice session ninth fastest, just under 1.3 seconds off Lando Norris in first, before slumping to P18 in the second hour of running.

With team-mate Max Verstappen back in the RB21 for FP2 after Tsunoda’s compatriot Ayumu Iwasa deputised in FP1, the 24-year-old found himself just under seven tenths adrift of the Dutchman who was seventh quickest at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Tsunoda explained he is still struggling to optimise the lines of communication between himself and the Red Bull pit wall.

“Bit of learning, I guess,” Tsunoda said when talking through his second free practice session in Sakhir. 

“It’s a bit different, the set up between the cars, to see how the performance looks like.

“But also, just this session was pretty messy overall, being able to put it all together. There was a lot of miscommunication between our side of the garage, on the radio, for example.

“That’s part of the learning process, because it’s still the fifth session from the when I jumped in [to the Red Bull], but was obviously not the finest session.”

Tsunoda’s bleak qualifying warning

Despite the difficulties, Tsunoda is hoping to continue to improve and mesh with his new team. 

However, although he is “optimistic”, he warned it will be difficult to reach Q3 in qualifying.

“I hope it’ll be better,” the Japanese driver said when asked about the grid-setting session and the grand prix on Sunday. “[It] has to be better than this.

“I’m sure we’re gonna change a lot of things. For now, the team is struggling, but at the same time, I know a lot will come from cleaner operations and everything.

“So that’s kind of freed up time, so I’m still feeling optimistic. But, yeah, it will be hard for now to go through to Q3.”

Max Verstappen lamented his Red Bull at the Bahrain Grand Prix, claiming the gap is “huge” to the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

The Dutchman sat out of FP1 in Sakhir as Ayumu Iwasa took the cockpit of his RB21, as part of the FIA-mandated rookie practice requirements.

However, his weekend started disappointingly in the second hour of the day, ending FP2 seventh quickest and over eight-tenths of a second off the front-running pace of Piastri.

To make matters worse, Isack Hadjar in the Racing Bulls car was faster – on medium tyres to Verstappen’s softs.

“It was difficult,” the four-time F1 drivers’ champion told his official website after the session. “Of course it took one, two laps to get into it, but the gap is huge.”

Throughout FP2, Verstappen could be heard complaining to Red Bull over team radio, highlighting braking issues and a lack of grip.

Diagnosing the root of the issues, the 27-year-old explained that compared to the McLaren MCL39, the RB21 is “simply too slow” at the Bahrain International Circuit.

“I’m not completely happy,” the 64-time grand prix winner said. “We had a lot of grip problems.

“We have a lot of work to do, also on the long runs. We’re simply too slow. To be honest, it wasn’t really fun on the longer runs.

“At the end I even had some drift training. The gap to the McLarens is big. We also had a different approach than other Fridays, so this gap is really big.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has stated the RB21 car is “too slow” in Bahrain as it struggled with overheating tyres during the opening day of practice.

Max Verstappen ended the second practice session as the fastest Red Bull driver, but could only muster seventh place.

The Dutchman’s lap time was eight-tenths of a second down on session leader Oscar Piastri as McLaren set an imposing deficit over the rest of the competition.

Explaining Red Bull’s struggles around the Bahrain International Circuit, Marko detailed the team is struggling in the hot conditions.

“We are too slow and the tyres are becoming far too hot,” Marko told media including RacingNews365.

When asked how much of the deficit is down to low engine modes, Marko replied: “Not much.”

Verstappen’s long-run pace started off in the range of being competitive with the second McLaren car of Lando Norris.

However, as the tyres got hotter, Verstappen’s pace began to suffer as the Pirelli rubber could not be brought back to a normal operating temperature.

“The main problem is the tyre temperature, which we can’t keep under control,” Marko said. “And as soon as the temperature goes up, we are sliding.

“Sliding makes it even worse. Strange enough, at one stage the tyre recovered, and we are doing the same lap times like Lando, but that was only three or four laps out of 15.”

As Red Bull enters the Bahrain round off the back of a victory in Japan, Marko is hopeful it can perform successful set-up changes to get it back into a competitive position.

“If we would know [how to fix the issues], we would change it,” Marko said.

“But we will change it like we did in Japan, and hopefully we get this golden mixture of setup changes and we are more competitive tomorrow.”

McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris served notice they will be a force to be reckoned with for the remainder of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

In the more representative conditions under the lights of the Bahrain International Circuit that will prevail for qualifying and the race, Piastri and Norris were head and shoulders ahead of their F1 rivals.

With final practice due to be staged in the heat of the day, Friday night’s running offered a clear glimpse of what to expect when it comes to the one-lap showdown in particular on Saturday.

Piastri even had a clear edge over Norris as the Australian finished with a soft-tyre, low-fuel lap of 1:30.505s, finishing 0.154s clear of Norris. The best of the rest was George Russell in his Mercedes, over half a second down on Piastri.

Ferrari falter with new floor

For FP2, in contrast to the high heat of the first session, the track temperature had dropped by 14 degrees to 34, and the air ‘cooler’ by five degrees to 30.

McLaren has suggested so far this season it holds an edge in such conditions. It will be a surprise if it does not lock out the front row of the grid, and from there finish with a one-two on Sunday, barring incident.

The circuit is old and abrasive, affording McLaren an advantage as team principal Andrea Stella claims the car is ‘more gentle’ on its tyres compared to the other teams.

Initially, running a new floor on a Ferrari that has so far disappointed this year bar Lewis Hamilton’s sprint pole and victory in China, Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc fared well, each taking a turn at the top of the timesheet early on.

It quickly became clear, however, that the bar raised was not very high.  As the soft tyre runs unfolded, Hamilton and Leclerc slowly slipped down the pecking order, becoming also-rans in comparison to the McLarens.

Leclerc at least managed to finish just 0.013s behind Russell, but like the Briton, was more than five-tenths of a second adrift of the McLaren pair, with Hamilton a second down in eighth.

Russell’s rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli was fifth quickest, 0.722s fadrift, ollowed by the Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar, who was faster than the lead Red Bull of Max Verstappen in seventh by a tenth of a second.

Verstappen, who sat out FP1 for Ayuma Iwasa, complained early on about the ride of his RB21, that it was “jumping a lot”, before later targeting the brakes, stating they were not working as he would like on two separate occasions.

Behind Hamilton, fellow Briton Oliver Bearman in his Haas was just 0.008s behind the four-time F1 champion, with Williams’ Carlos Sainz completing the top 10 ahead of team-mate Alex Albon.

Fernando Alonso, who sat out first practice in favour of reserve Felipe Drugovich, lost a further 30 minutes of FP2 due to a steering wheel issue that forced Aston Martin to change parts of the steering system. The two-time F1 champion was a lowly 15th.

Nico Hulkenberg brought up the rear in his Stake, almost two seconds adrift.

The FIA has made the surprising decision not to punish Carlos Sainz for swearing during an official FIA press conference, RacingNews365 can confirm.

Williams driver Sainz used the word “shit” during an FIA drivers’ press conference on Thursday at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The Spaniard had previously declared his unhappiness at being fined €20,000 by the FIA – with half suspended – for being late for the national anthem ceremony ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka last Sunday.

Sainz revealed he was late by only five seconds after requiring an emergency toilet break due to a stomach complaint verified by the FIA doctor.

During the press conference, Sainz even pre-empted his use of the swear word by saying, “I don’t know if I’m going to get another fine for saying this, but shit happens.”

At that stage, it appeared certain Sainz would be punished. After Max Verstappen swore during an FIA press conference ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix last year, the four-time F1 champion was ordered to carry out a form of community service.

The FIA then made clear it would enforce further breaches by imposing fines, in the first instance, or a more stringent punishment depending on the context in which a swear word is used.

Charles Leclerc was fined €10,000 for an inadvertent use of the f-word during an FIA press conference over last year’s Mexico City Grand Prix weekend.

FIA protocol dictates that the media delegate in attendance at a grand prix determines whether any incident should be forwarded to the stewards for their consideration.

On this occasion, the FIA media delegate Bahrain opted not to do so based on a lengthy conversation that followed with Sainz, who, it is understood, was considerably regretful over his use of the swear word, failing badly with an attempt at humour.

Sainz’s reaction is believed to be in contrast to that of Leclerc when the media delegate spoke with the Monégasque in Mexico City.

It is advantage to Lando Norris after Free Practice 1 for the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix heading into the more representative FP2.

Norris clocked the fastest time from Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton, in an upgraded Ferrari, but times in FP1 do not mean that much.

Held in daylight with track temperatures pushing 50 degrees Celsius, the field featuring six rookie drivers, struggled for grip throughout. 

The likes of Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and George Russell did not take part in the session, handing over to rookie drivers to fulfil the first of two mandatory rookie FP1 sessions. 

All will return to the cars for FP2, held as day transitions to night in Sakhir. 

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