BAHRAIN TEST – Max Verstappen fastest on first day of testing by three hundredths
Max Verstappen was fastest on the first day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit. The Red Bull driver managed a hundred and fifty-seven laps setting a 32.837 going almost three-hundredths of a second faster than the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.
Verstappen made the best start to his season topping both the lunchtime and evening sessions in Sakhir, during the afternoon he improved by over a second to top the times. The two-time champion was the only driver. Alonso set his fastest time on the C3 soft tyre despite a shaky start for Aston Martin.
Reserve driver Felipe Drugovich, standing in for the injured Lance Stroll, brought out the only red flag early on when a sensor issue on his first out lap caused him to stop on track. While Alonso’s running was cut short due to floor damage, but he still completed just over a race distance.
The Spaniard’s time came after the sun had set, when conditions were more favourable for flying laps, but was nevertheless encouraging for the two-time champion and his new team, who are hoping to make a significant step forwards.
Carlos Sainz was third fastest having driven the morning session going almost a hundredth and a half faster than Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said: “It’s very early stages but the first feeling was good. The most important thing was to do mileage and we have no issues. We were able to do the run plan and everything is going well.”
Red Bull were always expected to be the team to beat, given the stability in the regulations and their dominance in 2022. However, testing isn’t always the best understanding of where the cars are, teams can mask their real performances and their new upgrades until either the final day of testing or FP1 next Friday.
Lando Norris put his McLaren fourth almost two-tenths behind Leclerc, as he went a quarter of a second faster than the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. Both drivers having a much better start to the test than last year where they were plagued by brake and porpoising issues respectively. Both looked comfortable in their respective cars.
Mercedes over the last decade haven’t chased lap time in testing but has proven one of the most reliable teams, Hamilton managing eighty-three laps and teammate George Russell sixty-nine, as he finished ninth.
CEO and team principal Toto Wolff said, “It seems to be balanced in the in the right way. We were gathering a lot of data because that was important to correlate, obviously after last year and trying different things.”
“We knew that we were in trouble last year because the car was just bouncing around and we really weren’t able to drive it correctly.”
McLaren, however, saw reliability creep in as it did last year the team have to reinforce the air deflectors over the front wheels and manage fewer laps than many of their rivals. But Norris gave the team some encouragement with a quick lap late in the day to slot in ahead of Hamilton and six-tenths off Verstappen’s pace.
As ever, testing lap times are notoriously poor indicators of form for the year ahead because teams do not reveal the specification in which they run their cars and fuel loads, engine modes and other factors can have a dramatic effect on performance.
Alex Albon put his Williams seventh fastest five hundredths behind Hamilton. The British-Thai drivers likely rival Guanyu Zhou spilt the two, the Alfa Romeo going eighth five hundredths behind, and ahead of Russell by half a second. Albon’s new teammate Logan Sargeant rounding out the top ten.
Nico Hulkenberg made his return to the sport as a full-time driver following three years of being nicknamed ‘supersub’ having filled in at Racing Point/Aston Martin. The German driver put his Haas eleventh fastest going thousandth of a second faster than the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas.
Nyck de Vries put his Alpha Tauri thirteenth going ahead of Aston Martin reserve Felipe Drugovich. The Brazilian standing in for Lance Stroll, following an injury while cycling, he put in a solid drive despite his car stopping on track bringing out the only red flag.
It was a quiet day for Alpine, Pierre Gasly sixteenth ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon but it looked as if the team focused on long runs and data gathering. Teams have two more eight and a half hour days of testing and three hours of practice before qualifying next Saturday for the opening race in Bahrain.