Sebastian Vettel’s morning best remained unchallenged as the Ferrari driver completed a dominant first day of pre-season testing on Monday.
The German posted a 1m18.161s on the C3 [soft] compound tyres, two seconds faster than the best time on Day 1 last year and only one second slower than the best time from the entirety of testing in 2018.
That wasn’t Vettel’s only impressive feat either as he led the lap count with a mammoth 169, 19 more than the combined total of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.
As is typically the case, however, the German manufacturer didn’t set blistering times and in fact, the two drivers were only eight and ninth respectively on the timesheet.
Instead, it was Carlos Sainz who got closest to Vettel, setting several late flyers on the C4 [Ultrasoft] Pirelli rubber, and getting within half a second of the Ferrari in the McLaren.
Romain Grosjean also left it until the final hour to move into third for Haas.
It was a strong start for the Red Bull-Honda partnership as Max Verstappen was fourth but completed 128 laps, the second-highest total by a single driver.
Kimi Raikkonen caused the day to be ended a minute early after coming to a standstill at Turn 1, but it still a solid first day with Alfa Romeo in fifth, focusing predominantly on medium-length stints.
Daniil Kvyat joined Sainz as the only driver to use the C4 compound to set his best time in sixth with Sergio Perez only managing 30 laps on a disappointing first day for Racing Point.
After the two Mercedes, it was Renault who brought up the field with Nico Hulkenberg 0.003s ahead of new teammate Daniel Ricciardo as the Australian completed 44 laps behind the wheel in the afternoon.
A full look at the times from Monday can be seen below:
