Four things learned from first day of 2022 practice

Mar.19 - The first day of testing in the brand new F1 ground effect era has been done and dusted. Both first and second practice sessions were driven in Bahrain, so it's now time to look at what we have learned from this exciting first day in terms of tyre performance:

1. Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was quickest in free practice today, going fastest in FP2 on the Pirelli P Zero Red soft C3 tyre with a time of 1:31.936 min, ahead of both Ferraris. The AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly topped the time sheets in FP1 on the same compound.
2. The FP2 session, which in Bahrain is usually most representative of qualifying and the race, got underway at 6pm today but temperatures were cooler than those usually seen in Bahrain (at 18 degrees centigrade ambient and 22 degrees on track) with the race expected to take place in warmer conditions. The drivers used mainly the hard compound during FP1, while in FP2 they focussed on the medium and soft; considering them as probably the best options for the race.
3. The tyres showed good levels of degradation that were lower than expected, and no graining in the relatively cool conditions of FP2 in the evening.
4. Although it’s still early in the weekend, with plenty of track evolution still to come, the gaps between the compounds are in the region of one second per lap between the hard C1 and medium C2, and approximately 1.2 seconds per lap between the medium C2 and soft C3: a wider gap than the agreed targets.

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