Round 1 is here, and we have had cars back on track finally! So here is a round up from all the action on Day 1.
Practice-
Gabriel Bortoleto began his Formula 3 campaign in fine form as he topped the timing sheets in the opening Free Practice session in Sakhir.
The Brazilian looked at home in his Trident car as he set a 1:47.775 to go 0.075s clear of Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Gabriele Mini – an all rookie top two.
As the clock approached 23 minutes, a flurry of cars headed out of the pits to put their times on times on the board, which saw Bortoleto for a swift moment become the driver to beat ahead of Mini.
The top three from qualifying are: P1: Gabriel Bortoleto, P2: Grabiele Mini and P3: Gregoire Saucy, one thing to keep an eye on is track evolution as its expected to be a major factor in Qualifying.
Qualifying-
Gabriele Mini began his F3 career in fashion as he stormed to his first pole position of his championship debut. The HiTech Pule-Eight driver’s late effort of 1:47.055 couldn’t be matched as less than half a second separated the top 17 runners.
It was clear the field were pushing to the limit as Bortoleto took to the top spot however he became the first of many drivers to fall foul of track limits.
Times continued to tumble, as Mini launched himself half a second clear of Collet. Laying down a 1:47.118, then with three minutes remaining the Alpine junior delivered another lap which was a 1:47.055.
The order then continued to change, as the trio of PREMA cars rose up into the top six. And Bortoleto being a man on a mission to then launch himself up into second after the track limits violation.
The top three were: P1: Gabriele Mini, P2: Gabriel Bortoleto, P3: Gregoire Saucy. But looking toward the sprint race, Williams junior, Franco Colapinto grabs reverse grid pole as he qualified 12th.
Jordan's Track Talk 
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