F1 News: Verstappen buries competitors on Day 1 in Bahrain

With 30 minutes to go in Day 1 F1 preseason testing, Max Verstappen bettered his fast time with a lap of 1m31.344s to top everyone by over 1-second in Bahrain.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

After leading the morning session in the heat of the day, Verstappen went to work in the #1 Red Bull RB20. His fast time was 1.5 seconds faster than what he turned to lead Day 1 last year, such is the development progress Red Bull has made.

Of course, not everyone is showing their hand on Day 1, but Verstappen did not look like he was trying hard at all, turning 142 incident free laps.

Lando Norris turned the 2nd best lap in his McLaren, 1.140s behind.

All the fast times were set on the medium C3 Pirelli tires.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was 3rd quick for Ferrari, 1.240 behind the Dutchman.

Daniel Riccardo was 4th in the #3 Visa Cash App RB, 1.255s behind Verstappen.

Pierre Gasly rounded out the top-5 for Alpine, 1.461s behind.

The evening session ran without any major issue except for a big spin by American Logan Sargeant in his Williams. He was lucky not to hit anything. Sargeant finished in 11th, 2.5 seconds behind.

Bahrain Preseason Day 1 Test Times

Pos	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time	Behind	Laps
1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1m31.344s	0.000s	143
2	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m32.484s	1.140s	72
3	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1m32.584s	1.240s	69
4	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Visa Cash App RB F1 Team	1m32.599s	1.255s	52
5	Pierre Gasly	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1m32.805s	1.461s	61
6	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team	1m33.074s	1.663s	54
7	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1m33.247s	1.903s	64
8	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team	1m33.385s	2.041s	77
9	Oscar Piastri	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1m33.658s	2.314s	57
10	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber	1m33.871s	2.527s	63
11	Logan Sargeant	USA	Williams Racing	1m33.882s	2.538s	21
12	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	1m34.109s	2.765s	122
13	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Visa Cash App RB F1 Team	1m34.136s	2.792s	64
14	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber	1m34.431s	3.087s	68
15	Alex Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1m34.587s	3.243s	40
16	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1m34.677s	3.333s	60
17	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	MoneyGram Haas F1 Team	1m35.692s	4.348s	66
18	Nico Hulkenberg	GER	MoneyGram Haas F1 Team	1m35.906s	4.562s	82