Hamilton keeps Mercedes on top on Day 1 in Barcelona

© XPB 

Lewis Hamilton concluded the first day of pre-season testing in Barcelona at the top of the leader-board, while Mercedes locked in the two fastest laps of the day at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Hamilton added 90 trouble-free laps to the Silver Arrows squad's morning tally achieved by teammate Valtteri Bottas, and accomplished his fastest lap on Pirelli's C2 compound while the bulk of the field ran on the harder C3 tyre.

Remarkably, the afternoon session was once again void of any drama or red flags as teams and drivers reeled in the laps and worked through their respective programmes.

Sergio Perez's impressive morning effort with Racing Point's RP20 withstood the test of time, with the Mexican ending the day third behind the Mercedes pair, some four tenths off Hamilton's best.

Red Bull Max Verstappen was the opening day's marathon man, the Dutchman putting a massive 168 laps under his belt, only interrupted by the odd and harmless spin as the 22-year-old pushed his new car to its limit.

AlphaTauri's Daniil Kvyat was a slow starter in the morning but the Russian slotted himself into P5 in the closing stages of the session.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz and Renault's Daniel Ricciardo closed off the group of drivers that were all within the same second.

Williams' George Russell and Racing Point's Lance Stroll rounded off the top ten, while Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was somewhat adrift from the front-runners although there were no specific issues to report in the Scuderia camp.

The Monegasque appeared to work diligently on the set-up of his SF1000, raking in 132 laps over the course of the day.

Nicholas Latifi and Antonio Giovionazzi also added their names to the timesheet in the afternoon, respectively for Williams and Alfa Romeo.

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