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Sakhir (dpa) - penultimate, but better than his teammate: Mick Schumacher has met the minimum goal at the start of his first Formula 1 racing weekend.
In the hot desert of Sakhir, however, the Haas duo took the last two places.
Further ahead, Max Verstappen set the pace.
The World Cup third place in the past two years set the first best time at the Bahrain Grand Prix and fueled fan hopes for a real fight for the World Cup.
Defending champion Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas second.
Lando Norris from Mclaren slipped between the two.
And Sebastian Vettel: in twelfth place 1.763 seconds behind the front in his new Aston Martin.
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Only one hour and a half instead of one and a half hours - no one wanted to lose any time when the 5.412 kilometer track was opened in the Sakhir desert at 2:30 p.m. local time, thus finally opening the record season with 23 races.
Up front: Fernando Alonso, who returned to the Alpine at the age of 39.
As if strung on a string, it went on.
Mick Schumacher and Vettel also didn't want to stay in the box any longer.
While a fight for the first time of the day sparked off at the front, Vettel was initially over a second behind on a fast lap.
Mick Schumacher even had to wait a good quarter of an hour before he was allowed to go back onto the 47-degree hot asphalt with his defeated car.
On his first attempt on the somewhat slower medium tires, the 22-year-old then lined up in 16th place, four tenths of a second faster than his team-mate Nikita Masepin of the same age.
However, the Russian approached Schumacher's time in his further attempts, and shortly before the end of the first of two one-hour sessions was also ahead of Mick Schumacher.
The son of record world champion Michael Schumacher struck back and lost his stable rivals by almost half a second in the battle for the penultimate place.
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In the meantime, Vettel was stuck in midfield, and the left front tire was smoking when he braked.
After his six untitled and frustrating years at Ferrari, the 33-year-old four-time world champion is hoping for a new start with his Aston Martin, which he appropriately named with the role name of the first Bond girl, Honey Ryder.
In the battle behind the front with Mercedes and Red Bull, however, it became clear that it could be tight and that it could be difficult to achieve third place in the team.
However, the training times are still only of limited use.
The teams complete different programs on Fridays.
In addition, the track conditions in qualifying and in the race are different - both start under floodlights at dusk.
The asphalt, heated by blazing sunshine to temperatures of just under 50 degrees in early Friday afternoon, cools down significantly, which in turn has a major impact on the tires.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210326-99-984215 / 3
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