2022 GB3 champion Luke Browning established himself as the lead Free Practice rookie in the first session of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.
The British driver, a member of the Williams Driver Academy since 2023, posted the 13th fastest time in the hour long session, despite only setting representative laps in the final 10 minutes.
Having conducted data gathering laps for the team for the majority of the session, a set of soft tyres were bolted onto the Williams FW47 for the closing stages, and Browning delivered instantly, going over two tenths of a second quicker than the next best FP1 rookie Dino Beganovic.
Browning’s time of 1m34.885s was just 1.6 seconds away from the outright best time set by McLaren’s Lando Norris, and less than a second shy of Williams race driver Alex Albon. He was one of six rookie drivers in the session, with teams required to hand each of their race cars to rookies for a minimum of two FP1 sessions throughout the season.
The 23-year-old was experiencing his second FP1 appearance with the team having also completed the session ahead of last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
With his F1 seat time for the event now complete, Browning will now focus on his Formula 2 commitments, with qualifying and two races to come this weekend.