Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo has kicked off the Formula 1 season in style, topping the timesheet during the first practice session in Bahrain.
The 34-year-old, who is driving for the rebranded RB team, beat home both McLarens in a windy race, showing plenty of promise ahead of the new campaign.
Ricciardo finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, before dropping back in the second practice session.
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“Nobody coming into today would have believed RB would have been top of the pack, but we have to say there is only three teams out there that put on the soft sets in Practice One, they were one of the them,” Naomi Schiff said on Sky Sports.
“Clearly they have made a huge step forward this season.”
Ricciardo finished with a best lap of 1min 32.869sec on the course for RB.
Hamilton would come out on top in the second practice session in Bahrain, in what will be the English superstar’s final year with Mercedes before his move to Ferrari, while defending champ Verstappen slumped to sixth.
“It’s a shock, but we’ll take it …it feels like a race car for once,” he said.
Ricciardo finished 12th in the second practice session, but there are promising signs for the experienced Perth product.