Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton set the pace as he led a Mercedes 1-2 on the opening day of 2020 Formula 1 pre-season testing.
All 10 teams convened on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Wednesday for the first of six days of running, with fine and sunny conditions prevailing through the two four-hour sessions.
Valtteri Bottas clocked the quickest time during the morning session before handing over test duties to Hamilton for the afternoon session.
Hamilton quickly moved to the top of the leaderboard and then improved further to set a time of 1:16.976, leaving him three-tenths clear of his team-mate.
Racing Point finished third courtesy of Sergio Perez while Max Verstappen suffered two spins at the chicane en route to fourth overall.
Daniil Kvyat classified fifth for AlphaTauri, ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. and the Renault pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, who shared duties in the interim-liveried R.S.20.
George Russell was ninth for Williams on an encouraging day for last year’s backmarkers while Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10.
Charles Leclerc was a subdued 11th for Ferrari after stepping into the SF1000 last-minute in place of the unwell Sebastian Vettel.
Leclerc’s best time was nonetheless just 1.313s down on pacesetter Hamilton, on a competitive opening day of action at the Spanish Grand Prix venue.
2020’s sole debutant Nicholas Latifi took over the reins of the FW43 from Russell for the afternoon session and was 12th, ahead of Alfa Romeo tester Robert Kubica.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Alfa Romeo racer Antonio Giovinazzi finished at the foot of the timesheets.
Formula 1 pre-season testing will resume at 09:00 local time on Wednesday.
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps | Tyre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:16.976 | 94 | C2 | |
| 2 | V. Bottas | Mercedes | 1:17.313 | 0.337 | 79 | C3 |
| 3 | S. Perez | Racing Point | 1:17.375 | 0.399 | 58 | C3 |
| 4 | M. Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:17.516 | 0.540 | 168 | C3 |
| 5 | D. Kvyat | AlphaTauri | 1:17.698 | 0.722 | 115 | C2 |
| 6 | C. Sainz | McLaren | 1:17.842 | 0.866 | 161 | C2 |
| 7 | D. Ricciardo | Renault | 1:17.873 | 0.897 | 54 | C3 |
| 8 | E. Ocon | Renault | 1:18.004 | 1.028 | 62 | C3 |
| 9 | G. Russell | Williams | 1:18.168 | 1.192 | 73 | C2 |
| 10 | L. Stroll | Racing Point | 1:18.282 | 1.306 | 50 | C2 |
| 11 | C. Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:18.289 | 1.313 | 131 | C3 |
| 12 | N. Latifi | Williams | 1:18.382 | 1.406 | 63 | C4 |
| 13 | R. Kubica | Alfa Romeo | 1:18.386 | 1.410 | 59 | C3 |
| 14 | K. Magnussen | Haas | 1:18.466 | 1.490 | 104 | C3 |
| 15 | A. Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1:20.096 | 3.120 | 79 | C3 |
