Ferrari, Vettel end opening day of F1 testing fastest

Sebastian Vettel ended the opening day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Barcelona fastest for Ferrari after his morning time went unbeaten.

Vettel sat atop the standings during the lunch break after setting a fastest lap time of 1m18.161s in the opening session of the day, completing his lap on the C3 (2018 Soft equivalent) compound tyre.

While Vettel could not better his time through the afternoon as he focused on long runs, the German remained P1, finishing with 169 laps on the board.

Vettel’s closest challenger was McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr., who recovered from an earlier stoppage to finish the day second, four-tenths off the fastest time.

Sainz brought out the third red flag of the day during the opening hour of the afternoon session after his car ground to a halt with an issue.

The team was able to get his car back out swiftly, allowing the Spaniard to break the century mark for his lap count, ending on 119 for the day.

Romain Grosjean lifted Haas to third place in the final hour of the day, lapping a second shy of Vettel, but failed to complete a full race distance.

Red Bull and Honda enjoyed a positive first full day of running together as Max Verstappen completed almost two race distances en route to fourth overall. Despite a brief stop in the pit lane during the morning running, the day went by without any other major issues for the team.

Kimi Raikkonen recovered from his early-morning spin to finish fifth-fastest for Alfa Romeo with 128 laps on the board, with the team sparking a late red flag after the Finn ground to a halt at pit exit with one minute left in the day.

Daniil Kvyat took sixth place for Toro Rosso ahead of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, who could only complete 30 laps for the day as the team encountered teething problems in the first run of its new car.

Lewis Hamilton took over from Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas for the afternoon session, completing 81 laps as the team continued to focus on long-run pace. Bottas’ morning time was good enough for eighth, with Hamilton 0008 seconds behind in P9.

Renault also split running between its drivers on Monday as Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo completed the morning and afternoon sessions respectively.

Ricciardo had a quieter outing than his new teammate during his first official running for Renault, managing only 44 laps to Hulkenberg’s 65. The duo propped up the timesheets in P10 and P11 respectively.

Pre-season testing continues on Tuesday in Barcelona, commencing at 8am GMT.

Click here for the full results from the opening day of pre-season testing.