Day one of Pre-Season testing in Bahrain is over… and Lando Norris has made his way to the top of the time-sheet in the afternoon session. The morning saw Mercedes’ rookie Kimi Antonelli setting the pace and completing the most laps, 78, alongside Yuki Tsunoda. However, Kimi was not to stay, as the PM session brought Mclaren’s Lando Norris, who set a time of 1m 30.43s and darted to the top of list, 0.157 seconds quicker than George Russell in second.
It wasn’t long before red flags were thrown, but it wasn’t because of a crash (as it happens, the day was crash-free). Instead, a power cut had occurred at the circuit, and the action couldn’t resume until only 50 minutes were left in the session. Due to this interruption, an hour was tacked on to the testing time to make up for the time lost. It was after this incident that Norris got onto the track to set the fastest lap time.
Once the first day of testing had come to a close, Norris and Russell were first and second respectively, with the reigning world champion Max Verstappen coming in third, in front of Charles Leclerc. Carlos Sainz in his Williams managed to set the fifth fastest time, and Gasly was right behind in his Alpine. After recording the quickest lap during the AM session, Antonelli ended the day being seventh. Lawson, Albon, and Tsunoda all slotted in afterwards to make the top ten. Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar took eleventh and Kick Sauber rookie Bortoleto followed. Lewis Hamilton was is thirteenth after his morning run and states that “Being here with Scuderia Ferrari HP and in the SF-25 for the first time is an incredible feeling.” Behind him sat Doohan, Alonso, and Stroll, who all came in at fourteenth to sixteenth respectively. Oscar Piastri ran in the morning session and set a time that put him in seventeenth, in front of Hulkenberg. Both Haas drivers were in the bottom after the team confirmed they are completing a different program than the others, and Ocon and Bearman ended nineteenth and twentieth.
We still have two more days of testing to go, and it will be interesting to see if Mclaren manages to stay on the top tomorrow.
