Lando Norris has finished the first day of testing in Bahrain with the fastest lap.
The British driver completed a lap time of 1:30.430, which was 0.157 faster than George Russell.
The morning session was topped by Mercedes’ rookie prospect Andrea Kimi Antonelli who posted a time of 1:31.428, which was 0.132 faster than Red Bull’s Liam Lawson.
Antonelli’s fastest lap only had 1 purple sector however, with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton going purple in Sector 1, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso going purple in Sector 2 and then Antonelli going purple in Sector 3.
Williams showed once again that they have a fast car in a straight line with Alex Albon going fastest in the speed trap in the morning, clocking in at 332.3 km/h with McLaren having more downforce on Oscar Piastri’s car with him coming in the slowest through the speed trap at only 310.4 km/h.
The afternoon session was red flagged for an hour with a power cut happening, suspending all activities on track.
Eventually, the FIA added an extra hour to the allocated time to allow for testing to be completed.
Day 1 ended with the following times:
Lando Norris - 1:30.430
George Russell - 1:30.587 (+0.157)
Max Verstappen - 1:30.674 (+0.244)
Charles Leclerc - 1:30.878 (+0.448)
Carlos Sainz - 1:30.955 (+0.525)
Pierre Gasly - 1:31.353 (+0.923)
Andrea Kimi Antonelli - 1:31.428 (+0.998)
Liam Lawson - 1:31.560 (+1.130)
Alexander Albon - 1:31.573 (+1.143)
Yuki Tsunoda - 1:31.610 (+1.180)
Isack Hadjar - 1:31.631 (+1.201)
Gabriel Bortoleto - 1:31.690 (+1.260)
Lewis Hamilton - 1:31.834 (+1.404)
Jack Doohan - 1:31.841 (+1.411)
Fernando Alonso - 1:31.874 (+1.444)
Lance Stroll - 1:31.949 (+1.519)
Oscar Piastri - 1:32.084 (+1.654)
Nico Hulkenberg - 1:32.169 (+1.739)
Esteban Ocon - 1:33.600 (+3.170)
Oliver Bearman - 1:35.522 (+5.092)
With Pre-Season Testing it would be very silly to predict who will finish where in the championships, especially on the first day.
However, from the first day we can see that Williams have made major strides in performance with Aston Martin and Haas bringing up the rear on Day 1. The most worrying times would be from the 2 Haas cars, both 3 and 5 seconds off the pace when the other 18 cars are within 1.739 seconds of each other.
Here’s to hoping that Haas have a stronger day.
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