McLaren obliterate the competition in Bahrain: is there any hope for anyone?

In the beginning of the session, Charles Leclerc and Alexander Albon went off highlighting the lack of grip in general around the Sakhir International Circuit.

Before the 10 minute mark, Fernando Alonso had issues with his steering wheel as it was ‘turning off and on’, leaving the Spaniard no choice but to take out the wheel whilst on track, and putting it back in. Alonso then returned to the garage and got out of the car in a dejected manner.

As his teammate, Lewis Hamilton led, Leclerc was still to find any grip as he struggled to keep the car on track coming out of the final Turn.

Lando Norris asked to swap helmets, hans device and a good cleaning of the headrest.

George Russell then went to the top of the order leading from Hamilton by two tenths. Verstappen who had slotted in P3 just minutes before was dropped to P4 by Mercedes’ Briton.

Right after the 20 minute mark, the soft tyre runs started and Hamilton took the lead from former teammate, Russell by 0.030s.

Albon and Verstappen then took their turns at the top of the order, but Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took the top spots, with the Briton being the first one to dip below the 1:30's with a 1:30.659.

But Piastri then went even faster, as he edged out his teammate by a tenth and a half. No one could match the McLaren's, as Russell's best effort left him 5 tenths off, with his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli further behind, at 7 tenths.

Despite using three sets of softs, Leclerc could only close to within 5 tenths of Piastri.