Bahrain: pre-qualifying 2024

And so it begins.

With some slightly unexpected practice results. The mood music of testing was very much Red Bull top dog with probably Ferrari then Mercedes, McLaren, and Aston Martin, and Haas being an utter dog.

Practice doesn’t mean a huge amount but the results are nevertheless somewhat surprising, with Mercedes, Alonso, and Haas being better than expected.

In first practice, Ricciardo was quickest ahead of Norris and Piastri, with the Aussie’s team mate (Tsunoda) following. Alonso, Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc, Hamilton, and Bottas rounded out the top 10.

Second practice is often the most representative as it typically occurs at the same time of day as qualifying and the race. This session had Hamilton two-tenths ahead of Russell. Alonso was close behind, and a little ahead of Sainz. Piastri and Verstappen followed, then came Hulkenberg, Stroll, Leclerc, and Perez.

At this stage, my guess is Verstappen will still be top dog come race day but in qualifying things could be very close. Mercedes and Alonso, and probably Ferrari, could give Red Bull a run for their money.

In Q3, Sainz was the fastest man, this time ahead of fellow Spaniard Alonso by a tenth, with Verstappen a further tenth back. Leclerc and Norris were both within a tenth of the Dutchman, with Russell, Piastri, Perez, and Hulkenberg all in close contention. There was just over a tenth to Stroll, who was 10th fastest.

All this sets up qualifying quite nicely.

In terms of bets, no tip for qualifying but if you’ve got a free bet then a Spaniard is worth a look each way (Sainz 8, Alonso 15 on Ladbrokes at the time of writing.

 

Morris Dancer

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