Bahrain F1 test: Verstappen firmly in charge on first day

©RedBull

Red Bull kicked off their 2024 campaign in ominously impressive form, with Max Verstappen topping the first of three days of pre-season testing at Bahrain with a best time of 1:31.344s after completing 143 laps.

That was over a second clear of Lando Norris who was second fastest in the McLaren. Norris completed 71 laps in the afternoon after Oscar Piastri was in the cockpit before lunch, while Verstappen ran the whole day.

Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll filled out the rest of the top six in the warmer afternoon conditions, with Williams the only team to suffer significant technical gremlins.

Bahrain Pre-Season Test - Day 1

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Tyre	Laps
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:31.344s	C3	143
2	Lando Norris	McLaren	+1.140s	C3	73
3	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+1.240s	C3	69
4	Daniel Ricciardo	RB	+1.255s	C3	52
5	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+1.461s	C3	61
6	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+1.663s	C3	54
7	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+1.903s	C3	64
8	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+2.041s	C3	77
9	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+2.314s	C3	57
10	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber	+2.527s	C3	63
11	Logan Sargeant	Williams	+2.538s	C3	21
12	George Russell	Mercedes	+2.765s	C3	122
13	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	+2.792s	C3	64
14	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	+3.087s	C3	68
15	Alexander Albon	Williams	+3.243s	C4	40
16	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+3.333s	C1	60
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+4.348s	C3	66
18	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas	+4.562s	C3	82

Verstappen had topped the opening morning session with a time of 1:32.548s and remained in the car for the afternoon as well, with George Russell still in the car at Mercedes

First out after lunch was Carlos Sainz who had t6aken over from Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, putting in a casual opening run of 1:38.865s. Russell, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll were also soon in action during he first hour post-lunch.

Lando Norris held back, but shortly before the two-hour mark the mcLaren driver managed to displace Verstappen from the top of the timing screens with a lap clocking in at 1:32.484s.

However it wasn't long before Verstappen nonchalantly went back on top with a time of 1:31.662s, and he passed the one hundred mark as the sun set over Bahrain International Circuit.

Despite his slow start to the day, Russell also passed the one hundred lap mark in the final hour of testing by which time the floodlights were in full effect. However his time was 2.7s off the Red Bull and only 12th overall.

Alex Albon had been the cause of the only yellow flag toward the end of the morning session after completing 40 laps. The team subsequently revealed had been a fuel pump issue: "The car goes into safety mode pretty quickly," said Albon.

"All fixed now," he confirmed, after turning the car over to Logan Sargeant for the afternoon. "We're trying to understand the car. We need to understand just how different the car is."

"We had the issue out on track, it wasn't picked up with virtual testing but I'm glad it was picked up now not next week," added Williams boss James Vowles. the fuel is bedded in quite deep in the car.

"There was plenty of fuel inside it," he added. "Plenty of fuel left inside it, but it couldn't use it!" Sargeant was the last man out after lunch once repairs were completed, and soon took a trip through the travel at turn 10.

Sargeant was soon back out on track to continue with his session despite some concerns among the Williams engineers about the rear of the car, and a driveshaft issue was eventually diagnosed limiting Sargeant to just 21 laps.

Although there were no stoppages, there was a notable moment in the final 20 minutes when a piece of debris flew off Stroll's Aston Martin at the end of the straight; Ricciardo avoided it in the RB, but Hulkenberg's Haas hit it.

The engineers will check for damage overnight but there seemed little concern in the Haas garage. Between them, Hulkenberg and Magnussen completed the most laps of any team, with 148 pipping Red Bull's one man effort from Verstappen.

Tomorrow gets underway at 8am GMT for another eight hours of testing. Sergio Perez will take over from Verstappen at Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton will get his first taste of the new Mercedes W15.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.