The season kicked off this morning in Barcelona with the first day of winter testing. A studious return for the teams since all discovered their new car in a more real way.
Charles Leclerc topped the time sheet on this first morning, with a time of 1’20″165 on C3 tyres. rivals, we can note that these F1 are however already fast.
The track record is indeed 1’15″406, which is Valtteri Bottas’ pole position in 2019. To be less than five seconds from this record for a first morning of driving suggests that we will be very close to the previous generation lap times when F1 returns to Spain in May.
All the signals are green for the reds since Leclerc has also come close to the 80 lap mark, or more than 350 kilometers. A very productive first morning, therefore, with apparently no problems to report.
Lando Norris placed second with the McLaren MCL36. Again, we can’t tell anything from his lap, but Woking’s car completed more than 50 laps, which is almost the distance of a Grand Prix.
Overall, the teams were very studious and there were few disturbances in driving, since George Russell also approached 80 laps in the Mercedes W13. The Briton, who has just joined the team, is third ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Yuki Tsunoda.
At Aston Martin F1 and AlphaTauri, respectively, the running was a little less consistent than at the top teams, with just over 50 laps for Vettel and around forty laps for Tsunoda.
Max Verstappen wore number 1 for the first time on his single-seater and he was the best on one point: the number of laps completed. The Red Bull RB18, which we discovered this morning, did 80 laps without any problem. The Dutchman distinguished himself by a passage through the gravel, without gravity however.
Fernando Alonso was at the wheel of the Alpine A522 and exceeded the 50 loops covered, also approaching the distance of a GP. He is ahead of Nicholas Latifi, who was the fourth most present driver on the track with the Williams FW44. The Canadian did 66 laps.
On the other hand, we can worry a little more for Haas F1 and Alfa Romeo. The two teams only ran a little, especially Alfa which was able to set a time at the very end of the session only. Nikita Mazepin completed 20 laps, and Robert Kubica only 9 loops.
Already find nearly 400 photos for this first morning alone by consulting our gallery here. The gallery will continue to update several times per hour until late tonight.
| Pos. | Pilot | Car | Time | Tours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari F1-75 | 1:20.165 | 80 |
| 02 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes MCL36 | 1:20.474 | 50 |
| 03 | George Russell | Mercedes W13 | 1:20.784 | 77 |
| 04 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin Mercedes AMR22 | 1:21.276 | 52 |
| 05 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri RBP AT03 | 1:21.638 | 44 |
| 06 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull RBP RB18 | 1:22.246 | 80 |
| 07 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine Renault A522 | 1:23.317 | 54 |
| 08 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams Mercedes FW44 | 1:23.379 | 66 |
| 09 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas Ferrari VF-22 | 1:24.505 | 20 |
| 10 | Robert Kubica | Alfa Romeo Ferrari C42 | 1:25.909 | 9 |
| 11 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari F1-75 | – :—.— | 0 |
| 12 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes W13 | – :—.— | 0 |
| 13 | Alex Albon | Williams Mercedes FW44 | – :—.— | 0 |
| 14 | Mick Schumacher | Haas Ferrari VF-22 | – :—.— | 0 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Mercedes AMR22 | – :—.— | 0 |
| 16 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo Ferrari C42 | – :—.— | 0 |
