Verstappen ended up comfortably fastest in the first 60-minute FP1 session around the Losail International Circuit with a 1m23.723s to finish 0.437s clear of Pierꦯre Gasly’s AlphaTauri꧑. 

Gasly im♏proved to second with a late improvement to jump ahead of the Mercedes pairing led by Valtteri Bottas, who was nearly half a se🥃cond adrift in third. 

Lewis Hamilton, who trails Verstappen by 14 points in the world championship heading into this event, complained of a lack of power in his Mercedes as he wound up fourth𓄧 fastest and 0.786s down on his title rival. 

The seven-time world champion’s session was briefly hampered when he 🔯picked up front-wing damage after running wide over the ker𒅌bs at the exit of Turn 15. 

Away from the track a♊ction, F1 is still awaiting the stewards’ verdict regarding whether Mercedes’ request for Verstappen’s defensive move on Ha🎃milton should be revisited. 

Yuki Tsunoda was fifth fastest to ensure both AlphaTauris held positions inside the top five, a🃏head of the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in sixth and seventh. 

Eighth place went the way of Sergio P🉐erez, who ended up over a second behind his Red Bull teammate. 

Esteban Ocon and 🍎Lando Norris completed the top 10 for Alpine and McLaren respectively, with the latter suffering issues late on after a wide moment at Turn 15 triggered an “emergency switch” on his MCL♉35M. 

FP1 concluded🎃 with a late yellow flag caused by a trip through the gravel for Mick Schumacher after the Haas driver locked up at Turn 7 as the drivers adapted to the Losail circuit.