Gasly knocks Ferrari off top on opening day of Bahrain F1 test
Leclerc had ensured Ferrari’s strong start to testing continued as the Bahrain test got underway on Thursday morning, but the pace picked up as day turned to night, with Gasly ending up with the benchmark time after a late flurry of quick laps on Pirelli’s soft tyres.
Gasly initially hit the top on C4s by posting a 1m34.010s, before finding a further tenth improvement when he strapped on the softest C5 compound as he became the first driver to dip into the 1m33s.
In the closing stages, Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari second to best teammate Leclerc’s C3 tyre time by 0.172s, though the two laps were set amid very different conditions. The Spaniard ultimately wound up 0.457s down on Gasly’s benchmark.
Lance Stroll finished fourth for Aston Martin, three-tenths clear of Williams driver Alex Albon, who rounded out the top five.
After a suspected brake issue hampered his morning programme, Lando Norris did not feature again until later in the day. He had several offs and wide moments, with the MCL36 looking a real handful at times.
Valtteri Bottas racked up 66 laps for Alfa Romeo on his way to taking seventh, ahead of morning runner Sebastian Vettel, the Mercedes of George Russell and Sergio Perez, who caused a late red flag to bring the opening day to a premature end.
Perez beached his Red Bull in the gravel after a slow-speed spin in the middle sector. It marked the second red flag of the day, following a brief suspension in the afternoon for debris when a piece of aero rake broke off Stroll’s Aston Martin.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was 11th-fastest after completing the morning session for Mercedes, while Fernando Alonso only managed 24 laps after taking over from Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon.
Alonso and Stroll provided some hope that F1’s new rules will deliver better racing this year as they engaged in a great scrap in the first sector.
Alonso initially overtook Stroll on the pit straight before the Aston Martin driver re-passed the Alpine into Turn 1, before holding off the double world champion as they ran side-by-side on the exit of Turn 4.
After Haas was forced to miss the opening session due to freight delays, Pietro Fittipaldi managed 47 laps for the American outfit as he completed the order behind the Alpine duo and Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou.
End of day one results from Bahrain
