FP1 – 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix: Norris Tops Opening Session as Rookies Settle In

By Camille Lebez-Leroy

The first practice session in Bahrain got underway with some immediate action on-track. Plenty of rookies were driving this afternoon and as expected all eyes were on them. Ayumu Iwasa lead the way in Verstappen’s car, followed by Luke Browning in Sainz’s Williams and Ryo Hirakawa who is now driving for Haas after recently switching from Alpine, and before that from McLaren. Hirakawa, has now taken part in FP1 sessions for three different Formula 1 teams, which is pretty rare.

The tyre strategy was mixed, 11 drivers chose the hardest compound this weekend, the C1, and the other nine chose the medium tyres. McLaren started the session with the mediums, while Mercedes dedicated the beginning of their weekend to the harder compound. It is quite important to not that during this session Red Bull had an all-Japanese lineup, with Iwasa driving alongside Tsunoda, making it a nod to their driver development pipeline.

Early on Kimi Antonelli suffered with some issues, he reported having “no power” on the radio. Thankfully he managed to drive the car back into the pits, where the team began working on what was supposedly to be a water pressure issue. Despite loads of efforts to fix the problem, Antonelli never returned to the track, and ended up this practice with just three laps completed.

Lando Norris set the early pace with a 1:35.674 on the mediums, just ahead of Alex Albon. With Verstappen’s pole time last year, 1:29.179, times were expected to be quicker later, especially because the track temperature started to drop. Many drivers including Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson reported balance issues and a general lack of grip, while Lewis Hamilton answered sternly when his engineer asked him if he wanted to push again with a: “It feels horrendous, mate.”

As the time was running out, teams started to use soft tyres (C3). Gabriel Bortoleto was the first one to put them on for Kick Sauber and quickly improved his time, he even briefly topped the time sheet. Few moments later, Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly, and others used the softest compound as well, and all their times began to tumble.

Gasly looked pretty strong in his Alpine, going top and being nearly half a second faster than Norris. The latter answered back later in the session with a 1:33.204, finishing FP1 leading the time sheet. Even though Hamilton struggled earlier, he managed to slot into P3 after securing his best lap of the session.

There was only few incidents, but the tension in traffic was high. Williams released Albon into Tsunoda’s path in the pit lane, incident that will be investigated post-session. Later, we nearly assisted to a disaster between the two Williams drivers, which forced Drugovich to swerve. That too will be reviewed by the stewards.

Despite the tension, there were no crashes or red flags. All the rookies managed a clean session, with Browning finishing P13, Beganovic P14, and Drugovich P16. Hirakawa, Vesti, and Iwasa followed closely in 17th through 19th. Antonelli, unfortunately, ended his session 20th due to his early mechanical issue.

The final order was pretty surprising, with both Alpines and Kick Saubers in the top 10, alongside Albon’s Williams and Lawson’s Racing Bulls. While the times are not completely representative due to the time of day and the conditions that were really hot, Norris and McLaren appear to have started on the front foot. All eyes will be on FP2 for a closer performance which will be more similar to race conditions.