Strong warning to the competition on the first day of Formula 1 preseason. Max Verstappen was the fastest on Wednesday in Sakhir, finishing the day with over a second advantage over the opposition.
The Red Bull driver had already been the fastest in the morning session. He was one of the two drivers who completed the entire day, also accumulating the most laps – 142. Verstappen had already finished the morning session below the best time of the opening day of testing in Bahrain in 2023, but in the evening period he was even better – with medium tires, he clocked a time of 1m31.344s.
Lando Norris (McLaren/Mercedes) finished second, 1.140s slower than Verstappen after taking over Oscar Piastri’s MCL38 in the afternoon – the Australian driver finished ninth. Carlos Sainz replaced Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari cockpit and set the third fastest time, 1.240s behind, while Leclerc finished seventh after being second in the morning.
The top five of the day was completed by Daniel Ricciardo (Visa Cash App RB F1 Team) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine), ahead of Lance Stroll (Aston Martin/Mercedes) – who replaced Fernando Alonso in the afternoon. Alonso, in turn, finished eighth. Guanyu Zhou (Kick Sauber/Ferrari) completed the top ten.
Just behind was Logan Sargeant. The Williams driver only ran in the afternoon and had some problems despite his lap time – he spun at turn nine and lost track time with a car issue. George Russell was the only one to drive for Mercedes on Wednesday, finishing with the 12th fastest time. Among the drivers who only did half a day, the one who completed the most laps was Nico Hülkenberg (Haas/Ferrari), who finished in 18th and last place.
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