Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set the fastest time on the opening day of Formula 1’s 2023 pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit on Thursday.
Verstappen spent much of the day at the top of the timing screen, being the only driver in both the morning and afternoon sessions on Thursday. He finished the day with the fastest time of 1:32.837 and completed 157 laps.
Ferrari had a consistent day in both lap times and laps completed. Like other teams, they opted to use the aero rakes in the opening hours of testing, this morning.
Charles Leclerc also started the afternoon session with his SF-23 fitted with a rear aero rake – completing a total of 64 laps while his teammate Carlos Sainz completed 72 laps in the morning session.
READ MORE: F1 2023 Pre-season testing – Day 1 Session Report
After some troubling issues at Aston Martin in the afternoon session, Fernando Alonso was able to make a landmark improvement in lap time, late in the day. As the teams started to focus on performance runs, Alonso was 0.029s off Verstappen.
Despite also facing early problems in the morning session, Felipe Drugovich was able to cement 40 laps in the AMR23.
Williams showed consistent performance in the morning with Alex Albon being the wheel of the FW45, he finished the session with a fastest time of 1:33.671 and a total of 74 laps. Logan Sergeant continued in the afternoon, finishing the day 10th fastest.
Whereas McLaren seemed to struggle somewhat, on paper at least. Rookie Oscar Piastri finished the session 18th fastest while Lando Norris’ MCL60 was hastily fixed with gaffer tape to enable him to head back out onto the track –
Norris finished the day fifth fastest after beginning to improve his lap times in the final minutes of Thursday’s testing. In total McLaren completed 92 laps.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:32.837 | 157 | |||
| 2 |
 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1:32.866 | +0.029 | 60 | ||
| 3 |
| Carlos Sainz Jr | Ferrari | 1:33.253 | +0.416 | 72 | ||
| 4 |
 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:33.267 | +0.430 | 63 | ||
| 5 |
 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:33.462 | +0.625 | 40 | ||
| 6 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:33.508 | +0.671 | 83 | ||
| 7 |
 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1:33.671 | +0.834 | 74 | ||
| 8 |
 | Guanyu Zhou | Sauber | 1:33.723 | +0.886 | 67 | ||
| 9 |
| George Russell | Mercedes | 1:34.174 | +1.337 | 69 | ||
| 10 |
 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 1:34.324 | +1.487 | 75 | ||
| 11 |
 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 1:34.424 | +1.587 | 51 | ||
| 12 |
 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | 1:34.558 | +1.721 | 71 | ||
| 13 |
| Nyck de Vries | RB | 1:34.559 | +1.722 | 85 | ||
| 14 |
 | Felipe Drugovich | Aston Martin | 1:34.564 | +1.727 | 40 | ||
| 15 |
 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | 1:34.671 | +1.834 | 46 | ||
| 16 |
 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1:34.822 | +1.985 | 60 | ||
| 17 |
| Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:34.871 | +2.034 | 53 | ||
| 18 |
 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1:34.888 | +2.051 | 52 | ||
| 19 |
 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:35.087 | +2.250 | 57 | ||
| 20 |
 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull |
