F1 Testing Day 1: Leclerc tops morning times in Bahrain
It was Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc at the top of the timesheets at the lunch break on Day 1 of F1 preseason testing in Bahrain, much as he was in Barcelona. Ferrari were ever-present in and around the top of the timing sheets in pre-season running, and they have continued that trend here.
The Ferrari man setting his lap time of 1m34.531s on the C3 medium tires much earlier in the day when the track temps were cooler. The temperatures are absolutely scorching out there now, which isn’t necessarily an ingredient that leads to quick times.
Sebastian Vettel was third for Aston Martin, on the same tires as Leclerc’s Ferrari, but 1.2s off the pace and out to lunch again this year it would appear.
Sergio Perez in 4th for Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton in 5th for Mercedes were both sandbagging.
Day 1 Morning Times
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Tire | Laps |
1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m34.531s | C3 | 64 |
2 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1m35.070s | C4 | 53 |
3 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1m35.706s | C3 | 39 |
4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1m36.247s | C2 | 69 |
5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m36.365s | C3 | 62 |
6 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1m36.768s | C2 | 42 |
7 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 1m38.164s | C3 | 54 |
8 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m37.580s | C2 | 21 |
9 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1m37.888s | C2 | 44 |
C1 tire the hardest, C5 the softest