Lando Norris led a hot opening practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix which resulted in two of his rivals facing investigation.

Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon have been summoned by the stewards over two separate incidents during the session.

The Williams driver is under investigation for impeding his own team mate, Luke Browning, who was driving Carlos Sainz Jnr’s in this session. Browning caught the other Williams at turn 13, Albon moved off the racing line too late and Browning had to drive onto the run-off area.

“Wowch, that was close,” remarked Felipe Drugovich, another rookie getting a chance to drive in practice, as he followed Albon.

Tsunoda is under investigation for overtaking Albon in the pit lane. The Red Bull driver also slipped up by failing to stop at his new team’s garage, instead driving towards the Racing Bulls pit stop, until his race engineer Richard Wood pointed out his mistake. Albon, Tsunoda and Browning are to speak to the stewards following first practice.

The session took place in hot conditions, the ambient temperature reaching 35C which the track surface was over 46C.

Pierre Gasly set the second-fastest time for Alpine ahead of Lewis Hamilton, as he evaluated Ferrari’s changes to its floor. Albon was fourth despite his travails and Esteban Ocon took fifth for Haas. Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber ensured six different cars appeared in the top six.

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Browning was quickest among the rookie drivers and was complimented on his efforts by race engineer Gaetan Jego and team principal James Vowles. “You did really good for the whole hour,” said Jego.

Dino Beganovic was 14th in his first outing for Ferrari, two places ahead of Drugovich, who was only eight-hundredths of a second off Aston Martin’s regular driver Lance Stroll. Ryo Hirakawa was 17th for Haas, followed by Frederik Vesti in George Russell’s Mercedes and Ayumu Iwasa in Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli ended the session at the bottom of the times after being forced to pit early on with a technical problem in his Mercedes which caused a loss of power.

2025 Bahrain Grand Prix Grand Prix first practice result

P. # Driver Team Model Time Gap Laps
1 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes MCL39 1’33.204 23
2 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Renault A525 1’33.442 0.238 23
3 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari SF-25 1’33.800 0.596 23
4 23 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes FW47 1’33.928 0.724 24
5 31 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari VF-25 1’34.184 0.980 19
6 27 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari C45 1’34.262 1.058 24
7 7 Jack Doohan Alpine-Renault A525 1’34.396 1.192 23
8 30 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Honda RBPT 02 1’34.397 1.193 23
9 22 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull-Honda RBPT RB21 1’34.484 1.280 23
10 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes MCL39 1’34.508 1.304 25
11 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber-Ferrari C45 1’34.628 1.424 23
12 6 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls-Honda RBPT 02 1’34.667 1.463 22
13 46 Luke Browning Williams-Mercedes FW47 1’34.885 1.681 20
14 38 Dino Beganovic Ferrari SF-25 1’35.055 1.851 20
15 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes AMR25 1’35.116 1.912 23
16 34 Felipe Drugovich Aston Martin-Mercedes AMR25 1’35.198 1.994 19
17 50 Ryo Hirakawa Haas-Ferrari VF-25 1’35.261 2.057 20
18 72 Frederik Vesti Mercedes W16 1’35.325 2.121 26
19 37 Ayumu Iwasa Red Bull-Honda RBPT RB21 1’35.475 2.271 20
20 12 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes W16 1’38.051 4.847 3

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