Red Bull fails to turn a lap on first morning in Bahrain

Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets on the first morning of testing in Bahrain, but once again the focus was on Red Bull's lack of running rather than the cars circulating on track.

Both Red Bull and Toro Rosso had failed to complete a single lap by the midpoint of the first day, with the sound of grinding carbon fiber coming from the Red Bull garage as the team fitted its new bodywork solutions to the car. The reigning champions completed just 21 laps over four days at the opening test of the season at Jerez, but the various problems with the RB10 appear to have spilled over to the first morning of the second test. Engine supplier Renault admitted some responsibility for the lack of running at Jerez, but is confident it has rectified the battery problems it had in its first week, which was borne out by the X laps completed by the Renault-powered Caterham on Wednesday morning. Toro Rosso's lack of running is understood to be down to an oil leak.

Meanwhile, the Mercedes-powered cars led the way, with Hamilton's Mercedes less than 0.1s faster than Kevin Magnussen in the McLaren. Times mean little at this stage of testing, but once again the Mercedes W05 got off to a strong start with 41 laps over the course of the morning. The Force India of Nico Hulkenberg, also powered by Mercedes, was third fastest and within 0.2s of Hamilton's best effort.

The morning got off to a stuttering start for all teams when the green light was delayed 30 minutes due to a lack of marshals. When the cars eventually emerged, Fernando Alonso's Ferrari left a plume of smoke in the pit lane, triggering an early red flag and another stoppage. However, the Ferrari made it back to the pits under its own power and was soon back on track to complete 30 laps in total over the course of the morning. Adrian Sutil clocked up the most laps by 13:30, putting 45 on the updated Sauber and setting the fifth fastest time. At 12:40 he caused the second red flag of the session as he spun at Turn One, but he managed to keep it out of the gravel and free of damage.

Wednesday morning also brought about the first public sighting of the Lotus E22, with Romain Grosjean first to leave the pits at 9:30. Lotus had to skip the first test at Jerez to continue development of the new car, but following a 100km filming day just over a week ago it was up and running in Bahrain with seven laps in the first four hours of the day.

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