Immediately Pen a Note for Valtteri Bottas

During the Formula practice session at the season-opening Bahrain GP, two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, secured top positions as they recorded the fastest lap times.

Following them were the Aston Martin duo, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri of McLaren. Max Verstappen, the champion of the last three seasons and this year’s early favorite, secured the sixth position with his Red Bull.

Valtteri Bottas, the Finnish driver for Sauber, was tenth in the first practices and slipped to 17th in the second practice, lagging over 1.6 seconds behind his former teammate Hamilton.

Bottas had to face a jury investigation in the second practice for exiting the pit too rapidly. Fortunately, the jury was satisfied with issuing a warning to the Finnish driver regarding this situation.

“It’s a great feeling to kick-start the season. We have learned a lot from last week’s test runs. Of course, there is still a significant amount of work to be done, particularly in enhancing our one-lap performance,” Bottas reflected in the team’s press release.

The 3rd practice sessions and qualifying rounds will commence in Bahrain on Friday. The season’s first race will take place on Saturday.

“Based on current observations, we are still quite close to our toughest competitors. In the qualifying rounds, the difference will probably be about tenths of a second again,” Bottas speculated about the upcoming qualifying session.