In the morning session of the first day out of three hosted by the Sakhir Circuit, in preparation for the season, which starts from it on the fifth of March, the Dutchman topped following a period without any significant problems for the Red Bull car, ahead of the Ferrari drivers of Spain, Carlos Science, and Williams, of Thailand, Alexander Albon.
Verstappen completed 71 laps on his way to record the best time in an encouraging share also for the Mercedes team, whose British driver George Russell finished fourth.
Verstappen returned to be the best in the second session as well, this time ahead of the new Aston Martin driver, former world champion Fernando Alonso, by a narrow margin of only 0.029 seconds.
Verstappen ended the day by spinning the circuit for more than 155 laps, while the number of laps made by his rival in Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, did not exceed 83 laps.
What matters in these tests is not the arrangement of the drivers, but rather the focus is on the readiness of the cars, their operability and smoothness.
Alonso caught the eye with his fast performance during the 60 laps he ran, while the Ferrari team appeared somewhat positively following Science and his teammate Charles Leclerc from Monaco finished third and fourth, respectively, but more than a second behind Verstappen.
The McLaren team came fifth through the British Lando Norris, who settled for forty laps, while his compatriot Hamilton finished sixth, 6-tenths of a second behind Verstappen.
And the Mercedes team announced that it had eliminated the problem of rebounds, which greatly affected its results last season, and made Hamilton and Russell settle for the sixth and fourth places, respectively, in the drivers’ championship.
In 2022, the German team was satisfied with an orphan victory through Russell in the Brazilian Prize, but he wished himself to enter strongly this season in the struggle for the title and try to give Hamilton his eighth title, which will make him the most crowned driver in the history of the first category.
© 2023 AFP
