F1 LIVE: Lewis Hamilton wins FIA battle before breaking new rule

Max Verstappen will be keeping a close eye on Aston Martin this weekend after Fernando Alonso impressed in both Bahrain free practice sessions on Friday.

“They’re quick,” he said of Aston Martin. “But you could see that already in testing that they were very competitive, so yeah, they had a great day.

“For us, still a bit of work to do – I mean we know we have a very competitive car. It’s just now [about] putting all the pieces together.

“I mean FP1 was really bad, just couldn’t get a balance, which was a bit odd because in testing, whatever we tried – OK, some things were maybe not amazing – but [we were] not that far out, so a few things to understand.”