FP1: Norris sets the pace during first practice in Bahrain as six rookies join the action

Lando Norris topped the timesheets during the opening practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, the McLaren driver going fastest from Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton in an hour that featured appearances from six rookies.

Just days after racing in cool conditions at Japan’s Suzuka Circuit, the teams and drivers returned to action amid hot and sunny weather at Sakhir for Friday’s Free Practice 1. Several of the current grid, however, would not be getting behind the wheel, having instead handed their cars over to a young driver as part of the rule stipulating that teams must run rookies in four FP1 sessions during the season.

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Ayumu Iwasa, Dino Beganovic, Fred Vesti, Felipe Drugovich, Ryo Hirakawa and Luke Browning were set to turn out for Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Haas and Williams respectively, taking the place of Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Ollie Bearman and Carlos Sainz.

The new faces seemed keen to get going, with Iwasa leading the pack out from Browning and Hirakawa when the green light appeared at 1430 local time. There was early trouble, meanwhile, for the more familiar name of Kimi Antonelli, the Mercedes driver reporting “no power” before slowly returning to the pits less than 10 minutes into the session.

While Antonelli’s car was worked on in the Silver Arrows’ garage – the issue seemingly being due to a loss of water pressure – other drivers appeared to be struggling to find grip out on track, with Liam Lawson stating that the balance on his Racing Bulls machine was ”shocking”.

By the halfway point of the session – after most of the pack had put a time on the board with the medium or hard tyres – Alex Albon led the way for Williams on a lap of 1m 35.180s, putting him six-hundredths clear of Norris in the McLaren, with Gasly slotting into third for Alpine.

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Attentions then started to shift to the soft tyre runs and Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto quickly went fastest by half a second after being one of the first to bolt on the compound, before promptly being displaced by team mate Nico Hulkenberg.

As Antonelli’s problems persisted in the Mercedes garage – with the mechanics seen pulling on the rear wing in their efforts to sort the issue – Albon was released into the path of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda in the pit lane, prompting the Thai driver to apologise over the radio. The incident will be investigated after the session.

The stewards will also look at a possible impeding incident that occurred between the two Williams drivers, with Browning having to take avoiding action after encountering a slow-moving Albon on track.

As more soft-shod laps came in and the times continued to tumble, it was Norris who had gone fastest with his effort of 1m 33.204s, two-tenths faster than Gasly in second, while Hamilton slotted into third for Ferrari after completing his soft run later in the session.

Albon – who reported a loss of power in the closing stages – held onto fourth, ahead of Haas’ Esteban Ocon in fifth and Hulkenberg in sixth. Jack Doohan was seventh for Alpine, with Lawson, Tsunoda and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri completing the top 10.

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Bortoleto ended the hour in 11th, followed by Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, Browning and Beganovic. The Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Drugovich took 15th and 16th respectively, with Hirakawa, Vesti, Iwasa and Antonelli – who missed most of the session due to those aforementioned car issues – rounding out the order.

The drivers and teams will now have an opportunity to examine their data before returning to action for Free Practice 2, which is set to get underway at 1800 local time.