Fernando Alonso keeps expectations high for his new adventure in Aston Martin. The Asturian pilot has excelled in the first free practice of the Bahrain Grand Prixwhich this Friday opened the 74th season of Formula 1and has been located in second position of the provisional time table with the new AMR23, only behind the Red Bull of Sergio Perezwho led the session with a time of 1’32″758. Alonso finished 4 tenths of a second behind the Mexican driver and ahead of the two-time champion max verstappento 0.617.
They are not significant times and we do not know gasoline loads, engine map etc, but the truth is that Fernando has achieved his time with the same (soft) tire as Pérez and in the Aston Martin performance test, he has left his teammate Lance Stroll, who returns to action this weekend after missing the pre-season due to a hand injury that underwent surgery last week, by 1.1 in Barcelona.
With 20 minutes to go before the end of the first free practice session Carlos Sainz has starred in a spin that has been about to have serious consequencesalthough fortunately the driver from Madrid was able to escape the scare.
He Ferrariwhich was rolling at high speed, has given two lashes, lucky for Sainz that he did it in an area with a wide escape route, at turn 9 of the Sakhir circuit, for which he avoided the walls and was able to correct the course to return to the Scuderia box without further consequences, although with the fright in the body. Shortly after he has resumed the activity to carry out long runs with a view to this afternoon’s session, which will begin at 4:00 p.m. in Spain.