F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Hamilton and Vettel lead the way on Day 1 in Spain

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel set the pace in the first day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Monday.

Vettel was fastest in the morning session, and he was also quick after lunch - although this time the Ferrari was not quite fast enough to keep him ahead of Lewis Hamilton who set the best time of the day with a lap of 1:21.765s, which was just over a tenth faster than Vettel.

Hamilton, who took part in the afternoon session only on Monday, completed 73 laps compared to Vettel's full-day tally of 128, which was the best of any driver taking part in the day's testing.

The only other driver to make a century was Felipe Massa in the new Williams FW40, who was third fastest with a time of 1:22.076s after 103 laps of the 4.655km (2.892 mile) circuit.

Hamilton set his time using a new full shark fin design on the Mercedes, seen for the first time in the afternoon. Earlier in the day his team mate Valtteri Bottas, who took charge of the car in the morning, completed 79 laps and set a best lap of 1:23.169s before handing over the car to Hamilton at lunch.

Magnussen explains Turn 10 crash

Haas F1's Kevin Magnussen bounced back from an accident at turn 12 in the morning which damaged the front wing of the VF-17, but that was quickly fixed and he finished the afternoon in fourth place on the timesheets after he put in a subsequent lap of 1:22.894s.

Daniel Ricciardo got off to a tricky start in the Red Bull RB13, suffering a sensor failure in the morning and then an issue with the battery in the afternoon, but he was eventually able to get going and completed 50 laps by days end, finishing with the fifth fastest time of 1:22.926s.

Sergio Perez has comparatively limited running in the Force India and was seventh fastest on 1:23.709s, while Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz (1:24.494s) and Renault's Nico Hulkenberg (1:24.784s) both completed more than 50 laps before the end of the day's activity.

Ferrari and Vettel top the time sheets mid-day!

Fernando Alonso ran the fewest laps (29) after the new McLaren MCL32 suffered an oil leak that required a lengthy Honda engine change before it could finally get any time on track at all, while Sauber's Marcus Ericsson was the slowest man of the day with a best time of 1:26.841s.

Testing resumes on Tuesday morning, with Hamilton going first this time in the Mercedes.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps	Tyres
1	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:21.765	73	S
2	Vettel	Ferrari	1:21.878	128	M
3	Massa	Williams	1:22.076	103	S
4	Magnussen	Haas	1:22.894	51	S
5	Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:22.926	50	S
6	Bottas	Mercedes	1:23.169	79	S
7	Pérez	Force India	1:23.709	39	S
8	Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:24.494	51	M
9	Hülkenberg	Renault	1:24.784	57	M
10	Alonso	McLaren	1:24.852	29	S
11	Ericsson	Sauber	1:26.841	72	M

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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.