Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel led the way on the opening day of pre-season testing for the 2019 Formula 1 season.
Monday marked the start of Formula 1’s two four-day tests at Spanish Grand Prix venue Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with warm and sunny conditions expected throughout.
Vettel set a sequence of laps in the 1:18s during the morning session and wound up with a 1:18.161.
He was also the most productive driver through the course of the day, racking up 169 laps aboard Ferrari’s SF90; he will hand over to Charles Leclerc on Tuesday.
Gallery: Check out the best images from the opening day of testing
McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. and Haas’ Romain Grosjean both recovered from minor glitches to place second and third respectively.
The pair exchanged the position through the latter stages of Monday’s running, with Sainz Jr. ultimately bagging the spot, four-tenths behind Vettel.
Max Verstappen began Red Bull’s new partnership with Honda in fourth position, while Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a spin into the gravel on his out lap to rack up over 100 laps, placing fifth.
Raikkonen also brought the day’s running to a halt a minute from time after stopping on track in the C38.
Daniil Kvyat got his third Toro Rosso stint underway in sixth position, while the rebranded Racing Point squad began in steady fashion, with seventh-placed Sergio Perez at the bottom of the lap charts.
Reigning World Champions Mercedes split running between Valtteri Bottas (morning) and Lewis Hamilton (afternoon) and placed eighth and ninth respectively, running on harder tyres compared to most of their rivals.
Renault adopted a similar tactic for its run plan, with Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo sharing time aboard the R.S.19.
Hulkenberg and Ricciardo were split by just three-tenths of a second as they classified at the rear of the pack.
Williams, meanwhile, did not participate in the opening day of testing due to delays in readying its FW42.
The Grove-based team is unlikely to have its car in place until Wednesday morning, meaning it is set to miss half of the opening pre-season test, marking a difficult start to the year for the squad.
Testing will resume at 09:00 on Tuesday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 |  Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari | 1:18.161 | 169 | |
| 2 |  Carlos Sainz |
McLaren | 1:18.558 | 0.397 | 119 |
| 3 |  Romain Grosjean |
Haas | 1:19.159 | 0.998 | 65 |
| 4 |  Max Verstappen |
Red Bull | 1:19.426 | 1.265 | 128 |
| 5 |  Kimi Raikkonen |
Alfa Romeo | 1:19.462 | 1.301 | 114 |
| 6 |  Daniil Kvyat |
Toro Rosso | 1:19.464 | 1.303 | 77 |
| 7 |  Sergio Perez |
Racing Point | 1:19.944 | 1.783 | 30 |
| 8 | Valtteri Bottas |
Mercedes | 1:20.127 | 1.966 | 69 |
| 9 |  Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes | 1:20.135 | 1.974 | 81 |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg |
Renault | 1:20.980 | 2.819 | 65 |
| 11 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
Renault | 1:20.983 | 2.822 | 44 |
