Verstappen already stands out for phenomenal long-run consistency in Bahrain

Verstappen was in action all day long in Bahrain. Before lunch, the Dutchman had already covered more than a Grand Prix distance. Only Arvid Lindblad managed to log more laps.

In the morning, various run plans were evident: some started with a few exploratory laps, came back in to fine-tune the setup, and then headed out again for more tentative laps. For Verstappen, everything seemed to run smoothly, allowing him to start a long run.

For the long runs, the tyres used were noted. Of course, it’s not known what engine modes and fuel loads the teams were running.

While Verstappen had already driven more than thirty laps, Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton were still getting up to speed. Neither driver completed the most laps of the session: Piastri finished the morning on 54 laps and Hamilton on 52. After the red flag caused by Franco Colapinto, McLaren and Mercedes mainly opted for qualifying runs, which were not included in the table above.

The times showed that the last hour and a half of the morning was devoted to qualifying runs. McLaren, Red Bull Racing, Ferrari and Mercedes followed a run plan of one fast lap and one cooldown lap. Only after lunch did the long runs resume.

During the afternoon session, two drivers were monitored closely: Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, who put the most work into a long run. Lando Norris did a few laps at the start of the afternoon and later switched to qualifying runs. The sessions were briefly interrupted by a red flag.

Leclerc took over the car for Ferrari, first running a short stint on the soft tyre, then on the Pirelli ‘no-color’ tyre. On that compound, the Monegasque produced a strong stint, although it wasn’t as consistent as Verstappen’s on both the medium and the hard compound.

In the afternoon session, it is important to keep in mind the role the sunset plays, and it’s a track where conditions can change quite quickly as night falls and temperatures drop. Again, it's impossible to know which engine modes the teams used or how much fuel the cars carried. The times may not be worth that much, but the consistency in Verstappen’s runs on both the medium and hard tyres looks promising for the Dutchman.

Especially on the medium tyre, he completed multiple laps in a row within a tenth of his previous lap. That’s also visible in laps 16, 17 and 18 on the hard tyre. At the end of the session, Verstappen switched to the soft tyre. He looked set to take the fastest time into day two, but in the end, that was ultimately set by Norris.