Reigning Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen was fastest on the opening day of the 2023 pre-season testing in Bahrain on Thursday.
The Red Bull Racing driver topped the morning session in a time of 1m 32.959s and found further improvement in the afternoon with a time of 1m 32.837s after completing 157 laps on the first day of the three-day event at the Bahrain International Circuit.
The new Aston Martin driver and two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso, finished a solid second, just 0.029s behind Verstappen’s benchmark.
It was a productive turnaround for Aston Martin after electrical problems halted morning activities for Felipe Drugovic, who is standing in for the injured Lance Stroll. His incident produced the only red flag of the day.
In third place was Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr., who set his best lap time of 1:33.253s in the morning and was unchallenged for the rest of the day. Next to him was his teammate Charles Leclerc, who took over the SF-23 later in the afternoon.
Lando Norris ended the day fifth fastest but did not have smooth day as a lengthy stint of repairs in the garage limited the 23-year-old from putting in enough laps.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton got behind the Mercedes W14 in the afternoon and finished 0.671 seconds behind Verstappen’s benchmark in sixth. Mercedes announced they experienced “no bouncing,” the phenomenon that plagued them at the last Bahrain test 12 months ago and was a constant headache for the German automobile giant during the 2022 season.
🏁 DAY 1 TESTING CLASSIFICATION 🏁
Max Verstappen and Red Bull on fire 💪🔥
And, an impressive time from Fernando Alonso in the @AstonMartinF1 car, with the Ferraris close behind 😏#F1 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/uSYNhWfWLY
— Formula 1 (@F1) February 23, 2023
Completing the rest of the top 10 were Alex Albon of Williams (seventh) , Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu (eighth), the other Mercedes of George Russell (ninth) and rookie and the second Williams driver Logan Sargeant (10th).
Day two of the test continues on Friday at the Bahrain International Circuit.
