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Gasly tops Day 1 of Bahrain testing for AlphaTauri

Pierre Gasly rocketed to the top of the time sheet in Thursday's afternoon session in Bahrain, the AlphaTauri charger setting a new benchmark at 1m33.902s on the soft C4 compound.

Gasly's performance comfortably beat the best times achieved by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and morning pace setter Charles Leclerc

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll concluded his day P4 and was the final driver to dip into the 1m34s bracket.

Bahrain Pre-Season Test - Day 1

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Tyre	Laps
1	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1m33.902s	C4	103
2	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1m34.359s	C3	52
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1m34.531s	C3	64
4	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1m34.736s	C4	50
5	Alexander Albon	Williams	1m35.070s	C4	104
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	1m35.356s	C2	50
7	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	1m35.495s	C3	66
8	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	1m35.706s	C3	39
9	George Russell	Mercedes	1m35.941s	C3	60
10	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	1m35.977s	C3	138
11	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m36.365s	C3	62
12	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	1m36.745s	C3	24
13	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1m36.768s	C2	42
14	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	1m37.164s	C3	54
15	Pietro Fittipaldi	Haas	1m37.422s	C2	47

As in the morning session, most of F1's new cars looked like handful out on track, with drivers contending with front-wheel lock-ups and more chronic porpoising throughout most of the afternoon.

Although not immune to the issues, Gasly - who completed a century of laps over the course of the day - managed to overhaul Leclerc's morning best in the final hour of the session, thanks in part to a set of softer C4 tyres.

Sainz followed suit, just beating his teammate's best with 12 minutes left on the clock, a performance that bodes well for the Scuderia's highly efficient F1-75.

Stroll ran on a par with Aston teammate Sebastian Vettel and even beat the latter's fastest time. The Canadian was also involved in an on-track spat with Alpine's Fernando Alonso in the closing stages of the session.

Albon's morning best was good for P5 overall, while sole McLaren representative Lando Norris managed to slot himself in sixth place late in the day after a troubled session caused by an apparent brake issue that also sent him of course on several occasions.

Valtteri Bottas was in action in the afternoon and completed a decent 66-lap programme that delivered the seventh fastest time.

Behind the Finn, George Russell continued Mercedes' day of work, the Briton among those struggling with lock-ups during the session.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez rounded off the top ten but brought the session to a premature end when he brought out the red flag with minutes to spare after spinning at Sakhir's Turn 8.

Pietro Fittipaldi had the privilege of finally getting Haas' test underway, the Brazilian ending up slowest, some 3.5 seconds off the pace, but nevertheless putting 47 laps on the board.

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Michael Delaney