Verstappen fastest in first day of F1 pre-season testing ahead of troubled Alonso

Defending champion Max Verstappen went fastest on the first day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain ahead of Fernando Alonso, who set a late lap after being stuck in the garage for a length period of repairs.

Times were mixed throughout both sessions, with Verstappen clocking a lap time of 1:32.837 in the afternoon as he completed a full day of running for Red Bull.

Verstappen was the only driver to run both sessions, completing a marathon 157 laps across the eight and a half hours of running, with his best time coming midway through the afternoon session.

Aston Martin drivers Felipe Drugovich and Fernando Alonso were constrained to the team garage for most of the day, with Drugovich stopping with a sensor issue and Alonso hampered by floor damage, however the Spaniard emerged in the afternoon to come within three-hundredths of Verstappen’s time.

Ferrari was next in the order with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc both enjoying productive sessions, with Lando Norris fifth-fastest for McLaren.

McLaren lost track time due to an issue with a wheel cover which required extensive repairs, while teammate and 2023 rookie Oscar Piastri finishing the day 18th, two-seconds down on Verstappen’s pace.

“It was a reasonable first day,” said Norris.

“It was good to be back on track, to get a good number of laps under my belt and to get that first feeling from the car, so I’m happy with that.”

“It wasn’t quite the smoothest of days with a few little setbacks here and there, but we got through a lot of the plan and some of the key test items, which we can learn from over the next few days as well some changes we can already start to implement.”

“I’m feeling more comfortable in the car and have changed little things here and there to start to optimise a few things.”

“As far as test days go, it was positive and I’m looking forward to going again tomorrow.”

Mercedes was next, with Lewis Hamilton sixth after the afternoon session, however George Russell was ninth, the pair split by Alex Albon in seventh and Zhou Guanyu in in eighth for Williams and Alfa Romeo respectively.

Russell’s time could be put down to his run designated as an installation session, running with aero rakes in the opening laps before moving to set-up work.

“It is still too early to say where our performance levels are relative to the competition, but we had a clean day and learned a lot,” said the Briton.

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said the day had run faultlessly, allowing the team to work ambitiously in testing the 2023 machinery.

“It was encouraging that it’s a much calmer, more stable platform to work with than the W13,” said Shovlin.

Across the other rookies, Logan Sargeant ran tenth-fastest for Williams, while Nyck De Vries was 13th for AlphaTauri.

Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson said the opening day was productive and everything ran as planned.

“The FW45 ran reliably all day and we found no major issues. With only three days of pre-season testing, this is very important.”

Drugovich, filling in for the injured Lance Stroll, was 14th-fastest for Aston Martin.

Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were 16th and 17th-fastest respectively for Alpine, who admitted they were focused on aerodynamic testing on the opening day.