Bahrain F1 Test: Max Verstappen lays down a marker on Day 1

Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen laid down a marker for the rest on the opening day of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

As the Red Bull RB19 finally broke cover for the first time, the Dutchman immediately looked at home as he sat in P1 for most of the day, finishing with a best time of 1m32.837s.

In an ominous sign for the rest, Verstappen, who was the only driver to run all day on Thursday, also topped the distance chart managing 157 laps around the Sakhir circuit, 14 shy of three full race distances.

With plenty of hype surrounding their car, Aston Martin made the worst possible start to testing as reserve driver Felipe Drugovich caused the only red flag of the day after just nine minutes due to an electrical issue on his out lap.

But Fernando Alonso picked things up in the afternoon, moving up to second place just 0.029s slower than Verstappen.

More remarkably, the Spaniard’s time was less than 0.1s shy of Aston Martin’s fastest lap in qualifying for last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix, hinting at the incredible progress the team has made with the AMR23.

Ferrari looks competitive again with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in third and fourth, while reliability, one of their main issues last year, was also good with 136 laps completed.

But, their car did appear to be one of the worst for bouncing or porpoising despite the floor changes aimed at eliminating the issue for this season.

Lando Norris was fifth but it was a tricky day for McLaren, who were the only team not to complete over 100 laps on Thursday and appeared to have niggly issues with the MCL60.

Mercedes made a solid start to testing as Lewis Hamilton claimed sixth, while he and George Russell, who was ninth, combined for the second most laps of any team with 152.

Most notably, the porpoising problems that severely impacted their 2022 campaign were largely nonexistent on the opening day, offering plenty of optimism going forward.

One surprise on the opening day was Williams, who enjoyed a very productive day with 149 laps and finished with both Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant in the top 10.

Albon’s P7 lap was boosted a little by using the soft tyres, but the goal of progress after finishing bottom of last year’s Constructors’ Championship does seem very achievable.

Zhou Guanyu made it seven different teams inside the top 10 in eighth for Alfa Romeo.

Further down, the returning Nico Hulkenberg was 11th for Haas, while Nyck de Vries was the highest placed AlphaTauri in 13th.

The two Alpine drivers sat towards the bottom in 17th and 18th, though neither Pierre Gasly nor Esteban Ocon reported any issues.

Naturally, the first day of testing offers a far from accurate read on the pecking order for the season ahead.

Though interestingly, the times were pretty compact with 2.2s covering Verstappen in P1 to Kevin Magnussen in P19 for Haas.

Let’s see what Friday and Saturday have to offer as teams slowly turn up the wick.

Full results from Friday can be seen below: