Ricciardo fastest, setback for Mercedes, as F1 testing begins

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo clocked the fastest time as Formula 1 pre-season testing began in Bahrain on Friday, while champions Mercedes suffered a setback.

Formula 1 teams had to grapple with increasingly overcast and gusty conditions throughout the four-hour session with the threat of a sandstorm mooted for later in the day.

Ricciardo used Pirelli’s C2 compound – effectively the Hard tyre at Sakhir – to set a time of 1:32.203s for his new team.

It was almost five seconds slower than the pole position time achieved by Lewis Hamilton at last November’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

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Ricciardo finished just 0.028s clear of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who was the most productive driver in the session, amassing 74 laps.

Problems for Mercedes and Haas

Mercedes was the only team not to carry out a pre-test filming day and its W12 completed just an installation lap before returning to the garage for over three hours.

Mercedes detected a gearshift issue and opted to change the gearbox, limiting Valtteri Bottas’ time in the car, and giving the champions additional work.

Bottas finished the morning session with only six laps under his belt.

Haas’ VF-21 only ran for the first time on Thursday, having been fired up the previous day, and Mick Schumacher’s first experience of the car on Friday was hampered by a hydraulics issue, meaning he completed just 13 laps.

It acted as an early setback for a team that is running two rookies, struggled through 2020, and will not bring updates to its VF-21.

Mileage and data gathering

Elsewhere it was the usual case of data gathering and understanding about news cars – with performance runs fruitless at such an early stage of proceedings, particularly in light of track conditions.

Max Verstappen, who was third – just 0.042s behind Ricciardo – was the only driver to encounter major on-track drama when he spun through Turn 2.

Verstappen was swiftly able to recover the RB16B and continue Red Bull’s programme.

Several drivers struggled with the tailwind into Turn 1, running wide, but were able to utilise the extensive run-off at the corner.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was fourth, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who caused the only red flag of the session when he stopped at Turn 4 with 10 minutes of the session remaining.

Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen was sixth while Aston Martin newcomer Sebastian Vettel took seventh.

Williams handed running to test driver Roy Nissany and he classified eighth, ahead of the delayed Schumacher and Bottas.

The afternoon session will run from 15:00 to 19:00 local time.