Christian Horner breaks silence after being cleared of alleged ‘inappropriate behaviour’
Formula 1’s 2024 season is effectively underway as the groups put together for Saturday’s race with the noise surrounding Christian Horner refusing to fade.
Friday’s motion in Bahrain noticed Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz high the leaderboard in the third free apply session to arrange a Ferrari-Red Bull conflict in qualifying. McLaren’s Lando Norris additionally discovered some fast tempo although the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have been unable to take care of their robust displaying from Thursday.
In qualifying, Max Verstappen received the battle towards Ferrari and completed on pole due to an improved lap time of 1:29:179 beating out Charles Leclerc by 0.228 seconds. Hamilton begins in P9 although teammate Russell had a storming remaining lap to clinch P3 and will probably be in with an opportunity of difficult the leaders right this moment. Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso spherical out the high 5.
Elsewhere, Christian Horner drew the media’s consideration once more after Whatsapps allegedly despatched by him to a feminine colleague have been leaked to the press, in what might be an embarrassing improvement for the Red Bull group principal who had earlier been investigated and cleared over alleged ’inappropriate behaviour’.
Follow updates from the Bahrain Grand Prix with The Independent:
Max Verstappen after securing pole place:
“Rather a lot of enjoyable, the observe had quite a bit of grip. Very completely happy to be on pole – to be sincere it was a bit of bit sudden however fortunately the automotive got here to us.
“We wanted to tremendous tune a number of little issues to get that stability. We may actually push with the automotive and one other step in qualifying.
“The race goes to be shut as effectively. I’m assured we will have a powerful race!”
Mike Jones2 March 2024 08:45
Charles Leclerc aggravated with Ferrari for ‘compromising’ remaining stage of Bahrain GP qualifying
Leclerc was proper in competition for high spot in the first qualifying session of the season, alongside team-mate Carlos Sainz and Verstappen.
However, the Monegasque solely completed second in the finish – two-tenths of a second slower than Verstappen – and was “disappointed” given pole place was inside his attain.
Mike Jones2 March 2024 08:30
Max Verstappen continues the place he left off in 2023 with pole place in Bahrain
The build-up to the first race of the marketing campaign has completely been overshadowed by allegations whirling round Horner.
The 50-year-old was exonerated by Red Bull Racing mother or father’s firm, Red Bull GmbH, following an inside probe into “inappropriate behaviour” towards a feminine colleague on Wednesday – earlier than a whole lot of WhatsApp messages showing to be written by him have been leaked to the F1 world a day later.
Mike Jones2 March 2024 08:15
Good morning!
Welcome to The Independent’s protection of the first Formula 1 grand prix of the season.
The race takes place in Bahrain with Max Verstappen choosing up the place he left off final season and incomes pole place forward of Charles Leclerc and George Russell in qualifying on Friday evening.
Lewis Hamilton begins in ninth however will probably be hoping for a stronger displaying throughout the race. We’ll have all the updates all through the day stick round for all the motion from the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Mike Jones2 March 2024 08:00
