Formula 1 News: Verstappen tops Day 1 morning times in Bahrain

Defending World Driving Champion Max Verstappen sent early chills down the spine of his competitors with a blistering time in the first preseason F1 test session in Bahrain.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The four-hour morning session saw Verstappen turn a lap of 1m32.548s in the radical Red Bull RB20. That was 0.7s faster than Charles Leclerc could manage in his new Ferrari.

Of course, it’s still early days with Verstappen’s top time well over two seconds slower than his own pole time from 2023 but he was on hard tires.

Fernando Alonso completed the top three in the AMR24, 0.837s off Verstappen.

Oscar Piastri completed 56 laps as he set the fourth-fastest time of the day, 1.1s off the pace.

Yuki Tsunoda set the fifth-fastest time in the Visa Cash App RB ahead of George Russell and Valtteri Bottas.

Alex Albon was eighth overall, but his session was cut short after a fuel-related issue forced him to stop out on track.

Bahrain Pre-Season Testing – Day 1 Morning Results