Max Verstappen indicated Red Bull is ready to take on Mercedes in 2021 by going fastest in Practice 1 for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
As always, the daytime conditions in the desert were not representative of what teams will face come qualifying and the race under the lights at Sakhir.
But with all three practice sessions now just one hour long, Mercedes and Red Bull spent the first 60 minutes solely on the soft compound tyres.
And with his last flying lap, Verstappen produced a 1m31.394s, putting him three-tenths clear of Valtteri Bottas.
Unsurprisingly, the Mercedes does look strong but it still wasn't ideal with Lewis Hamilton struggling with understeer down in fourth.
The team that caught the eye in second half of FP1 was McLaren as Lando Norris went fastest for a time before winding up third just half a second back.
🏁 #FP1 comes to a close 🏁
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 26, 2021
Lando finishes the session in P3, Daniel in P9. #BahrainGP 🇧🇭 pic.twitter.com/xgnvj6kY3b
Daniel Ricciardo appeared to have a small reliability issue at one point but was still a steady ninth.
Ferrari also appears solid with Charles Leclerc fifth just a tenth further back, while teammate Carlos Sainz was eighth.
Sergio Perez was sixth in his first session for Red Bull, ahead of Pierre Gasly in seventh for AlphaTauri.
A full second was all that covered Verstappen in P1 to Ricciardo in P9, highlighting how close this year's grid could be.
Alfa Romeo was tipped as a team to watch after testing, and the Swiss squad do look decent with Antonio Giovinazzi 10th and Kimi Raikkonen 11th.
It was an underwhelming start for Aston Martin and Alpine as they filled P12-16, with Yuki Tsunoda dividing them in P14.
However, Esteban Ocon did have the early edge on Fernando Alonso by three-tenths at Alpine, indicating that battle might be closer than many expect.
Williams and Haas brought up the back of the field, with Mick Schumacher four-tenths up on teammate Nikita Mazepin.
An interesting start to the new season, but now we wait to see how it will unfold as teams gradually up the pace under the lights in Practice 2.
Full results from Practice 1 can be seen below:
