Bahrain F1 testing: Verstappen edges Alonso to stay in charge on Day 1

Red Bull's Max Verstappen ended the first day of 2023 pre-season testing in Bahrain on top of the timesheets, setting a benchmark time of 1:32.837s after completing 156 trouble-free laps on Thursday, almost three full race distances.

Verstappen was the only driver to stay in the cockpit all day, meaning that none of the others taking part managed to follow him past the 100 lap milestone. It was the first public appearance of the RB19, featuring dramatic undercuts on the sidepods to direct the airflow to the rear,

The reigning world champion had also been quickest of anyone before lunch with his time of 1:32.959s putting him ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.

Bahrain Pre-Season Test - Day 1 final

After the break he managed to reduce his time by just over a tenth. It kept him ahead of a late challenge from Fernando Alonso, despite the Spaniard missing out on track time when the team had to repair some floor damage on the Aston Martin.

Alonso's fastest time came much later in the day than Verstappen's with conditions much more favourable for flying laps, but it was an encouraging start for the two-time champion with his new team.

Sainz' earlier effort remained good enough to keep him in third place in the day's final timesheets, just ahead of his team mate Charles Leclerc who had taken over in the SF-23 for the afternoon.

"It's very early stages but the first feeling was good," said new team principal Frederic Vasseur. The most important thing was to do mileage, and we had no issues. We were able to do the run plan and everything is going well."

Fifth fastest was McLaren's Lando Norris, despite the British driver missing out on track time as the team hunted down technical problems with the MCL60's air deflectors over the front wheels that had to be reinforced.

As a result Norris managed only 40 laps, the lowest of the day - a total shared with Felipe Drugovich who suffered an electrical problem on the Aston Martin early in the day.

In total the 19 drivers completed 1275 laps of Bahrain International Circuit on Thursday.

Lewis Hamilton returned to driving duty with the sixth quickest time of the day of 1:33.508s, after completing 83 laps during the afternoon and evening session, which included over an hour of night time running under the floodlights.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was relieved that this year's first day of testing was much better than last year, when major problems with the car's performance prefigured a hugely disappointing season.

Hamilton's time put him just ahead of Alex Albon, although the Williams driver was alone in setting his fastest lap on the soft C5 rubber while everyone else stuck with the medium C3 for their flying laps.

Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu was eighth, four tenths ahead of George Russell who had been in charge of the Mercedes W14 early in the day.

Rookie driver Logan Sargeant was tenth quickest just ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, returning to the sport this year with Haas. Another rookie, Nyck de Vries, was 13th behind the wheel of the AlphaTauri.

After Drugovich was Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), with Oscar Piastri 18th for McLaren and Kevin Magnussen slowest of those taking part in 19th for Haas.

Testing resumes tomorrow and will conclude on Saturday, with the first race of the 2023 season scheduled for next weekend on Sunday, March 5.

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