Pierre Gasly rocketed to the top of the time sheet in Thursday's afternoon session in Bahrain, the AlphaTauri charger setting a new benchmark at 1m33.902s on the soft C4 compound.
Gasly's performance comfortably beat the best times achieved by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and morning pace setter Charles Leclerc
Aston Martin's Lance Stroll concluded his day P4 and was the final driver to dip into the 1m34s bracket.
Bahrain Pre-Season Test - Day 1
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Tyre | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1m33.902s | C4 | 103 |
| 2 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1m34.359s | C3 | 52 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m34.531s | C3 | 64 |
| 4 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1m34.736s | C4 | 50 |
| 5 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 1m35.070s | C4 | 104 |
| 6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m35.356s | C2 | 50 |
| 7 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1m35.495s | C3 | 66 |
| 8 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1m35.706s | C3 | 39 |
| 9 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1m35.941s | C3 | 60 |
| 10 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull | 1m35.977s | C3 | 138 |
| 11 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m36.365s | C3 | 62 |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1m36.745s | C3 | 24 |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1m36.768s | C2 | 42 |
| 14 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 1m37.164s | C3 | 54 |
| 15 | Pietro Fittipaldi | Haas | 1m37.422s | C2 | 47 |
As in the morning session, most of F1's new cars looked like handful out on track, with drivers contending with front-wheel lock-ups and more chronic porpoising throughout most of the afternoon.
Although not immune to the issues, Gasly - who completed a century of laps over the course of the day - managed to overhaul Leclerc's morning best in the final hour of the session, thanks in part to a set of softer C4 tyres.
Sainz followed suit, just beating his teammate's best with 12 minutes left on the clock, a performance that bodes well for the Scuderia's highly efficient F1-75.
Stroll ran on a par with Aston teammate Sebastian Vettel and even beat the latter's fastest time. The Canadian was also involved in an on-track spat with Alpine's Fernando Alonso in the closing stages of the session.
Albon's morning best was good for P5 overall, while sole McLaren representative Lando Norris managed to slot himself in sixth place late in the day after a troubled session caused by an apparent brake issue that also sent him of course on several occasions.
Valtteri Bottas was in action in the afternoon and completed a decent 66-lap programme that delivered the seventh fastest time.
Behind the Finn, George Russell continued Mercedes' day of work, the Briton among those struggling with lock-ups during the session.
Red Bull's Sergio Perez rounded off the top ten but brought the session to a premature end when he brought out the red flag with minutes to spare after spinning at Sakhir's Turn 8.
Pietro Fittipaldi had the privilege of finally getting Haas' test underway, the Brazilian ending up slowest, some 3.5 seconds off the pace, but nevertheless putting 47 laps on the board.
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