The historic race of the twentieth anniversary of the Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024 begins tomorrow, Saturday, during the first and opening round of the Formula One World Championship for the 2024 season, at the Bahrain International Circuit, “the home of motorsport in the Middle East.”
The 20th Anniversary Race will light up the skies of Sakhir at 6 p.m. and continue for two hours until 8 p.m., while the Bahrain International Circuit will open its doors during the day to the fans from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m., as the Bahrain International Circuit will be crowded with a busy schedule of international and regional races, entertainment events and parties. Lyricism.
The Ferrari team succeeded in attracting attention ahead of the official competitions of the 2024 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix after driver Carlos Sainz led the third and final practice session before the first round of the World Championship qualifiers.
Sainz was able to achieve a time of 1 minute and 30.824 seconds, breaking the record of the brilliant Fernando Alonso, who drove an Aston Martin car to achieve the second fastest time by 1 minute and 30.965 seconds, after there were doubts about the team’s level due to the car’s performance in the winter tests that were held on the same track.
As for the world champion and most prominent candidate for this award, Max Verstappen achieved the third fastest lap time of 1 minute and 31.965 seconds in a Red Bull car, ahead of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who recorded the fourth fastest lap time of 1 minute and 31.094 seconds, reinforcing the impression that Ferrari has closed the gap between it and Red Bull.
Lando Norris achieved the fifth fastest time in the period to slightly erase the negative image that the team had in pre-season testing and the few laps it ran due to the recurring problems the team was exposed to.
All drivers recorded their times on the soft tires to simulate fast qualifying laps before returning to the track at 7pm for qualifying.
George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll completed the top ten drivers’ laps.
It is noteworthy that Daniel Ricciardo, driver of the RB team, topped the first session of the test, while Lewis Hamilton topped the second session, and the lead in the third went to Ferrari through Sainz.
As part of the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East race, German DHL team driver Theo Overhouse snatched the first starting position after recording the fastest time in the qualifying session that was held on Friday as part of the fifth round of the 2023/2024 season, which was held as a support race for the 2024 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
House recorded a time of two minutes and 01.529 seconds to secure the start from the front of the first race, with the Dutch driver of the Central Europe Racing team, Robert de Haan, sharing the same row, who came second in the standings with a time of two minutes and 01.661 seconds.
On the other hand, Robert de Haan took first place in the second race, setting the best time among the second fastest laps for each driver in qualifying. De Haan recorded a time of 2 minutes and 01.784 seconds. Overhouse and De Haan will be on the front row for the first race of the weekend, scheduled to take place later at 8.45pm. While Harry King will start from third position and will start alongside Jan Styak. For his part, Khaled Al-Ahmadi topped the ProAm category, while Sebastian Gorga ranked first among competitors in the Am category.
Drivers De Haan and Overhouse also share the front row for the second race, but De Haan starts first this time in front of Styak and King, who finished third and fourth, respectively.
The second Porsche race of the round is scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m.
Prema Racing driver Arvid Lindblad achieved first place in the fast race of the first round of the FIA Formula 3 World Championship, which was held as a support race for the 2024 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. The British driver scored first place, finishing the race with a time of one hour and 52.198 seconds. He surpassed ERT driver Laurens van Houpen, while Italian Trident team driver Leonardo Fornaroli completed the podium, achieving third place.
Despite leading many laps of the race, the Italian driver of the ERT team, Nicola Zolov, finished the race in fourth place after being close to the line of a podium finish. Drivers Tim Traminitz from the MP Motorsport team, Michael Esterson from the Genzer Motorspot team, Gabriel Mini from Prema Racing, Marie Boya Tamman from Campos Racing, Olivier Guthy from Campos Racing and Sami Migotonev achieved positions from fifth to tenth.
The FIA Formula 3 World Championship will resume its activity with the main race on Saturday at twelve o’clock in the afternoon. Swedish Prema Racing driver Dino Pejanovic will start first in the main race after achieving the fastest time in qualifying. Pejanovic snatched the lead from the brilliant driver of the Hitech GP team, Luc Brünnig, who occupied second place by 0.167 seconds.
Tomorrow, the track will present to Formula One racing fans a concert by the 13-time Grammy Award-nominated artist, “Diplo.” Entrance to the concert will be free and without additional fees. The concert will begin immediately after the excitement on the track ends, at 9 p.m. on the main platform in the entertainment district.
The Bahrain International Circuit announced the continuation of the distinctive and attractive draw campaign “10 prizes every 10 minutes” on the sidelines of hosting the Formula 1 race – the 2024 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
The “10 prizes every 10 minutes” drawing campaign will be launched tomorrow on the main stage only, and for fans only in their seats on the main stage, where the campaign will start at 4.45 pm.
It is considered a unique raffle campaign that was launched in previous years and received great demand. Valuable gifts will be distributed, most notably iPhone 15, Pro and Pro Max smartphones, PlayStation 5, Apple Watch, Samsung phones, Huawei phones, wireless headphones, Nokia phones, and much more.
The Formula One Entertainment Village concludes its activities on Saturday, as fans enjoyed days full of excitement over the past few days. The Formula One Village in the entertainment area witnessed a large crowd attending to experience the atmosphere of the largest sporting event in the Middle East and enjoy all the fun activities directed at individuals and families.
The children had the largest share of fun and entertainment through the activities dedicated to children, which received great demand from families and children as well, in addition to the bands roaming throughout the village, which entertained the crowds with the most beautiful comedic and artistic performances, which was an appropriate opportunity to take souvenir photos. All of these events and more will also be present during the final day in the entertainment area located behind the main grandstand.
Below is the schedule of events for tomorrow, Saturday:
– 12:00 12:50 Formula 3 Main Race (22 laps or 45 minutes)
– 13:30 14:35 Formula 2 Main Race (32 laps or 60 minutes)
– 15:00 15:30 Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East Race 2 (11 laps or 25 minutes)
– -15:40 15:55 A tour of the track, a historical display of Formula One
– 16:00 16:30 Formula One Drivers Show
– 17:32 – 17:37 Air show An air show on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary
– 17:46 – 17:47 Formula One Royal Anthem
– 17:47 – 17:48 Air show Gulf Air air show
– 18:00 20:00 Formula One Grand Prix (57 laps or 120 minutes)
