Verstappen fastest in first morning of Bahrain testpublished at 12:11 GMT
Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent
Image source, Getty ImagesRed Bull’s Max Verstappen ended the first morning of the first Bahrain test with the fastest time.
The test, which runs until Friday, is the first of six days at the Bahrain International Circuit this week and next as the Formula 1 teams seek to understand their new cars before the start of the championship next month.
Verstappen’s fastest time of one minute 35.433 seconds, set on the medium compound tyre, was 0.169secs quicker than McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, using the soft.
Headline lap times in testing are notoriously unreliable as indicators of form as the specification in which the cars are running is not made public.
That is even more the case this year after the biggest rules reset in F1 history, with new regulations for chassis, power-units, tyres and fuel coming into force.
George Russell of Mercedes was third fastest ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, while Williams were seventh fastest with Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard was behind the Haas of Esteban Ocon and 18-year-old British rookie Arvid Lindblad for Racing Bulls.
The Aston Martin team, the centre of a great deal of interest with their first Adrian Newey-designed car at the start of their engine partnership with Honda were towards the back – Lance Stroll, who is driving all day on Wednesday, was more than four seconds off the pace.
