Verstappen tops timesheet on day 1 of F1 2023 testing from Bahrain

He was followed on the timesheet by Fernando Alonso, looking comfortable after switching to Aston Martin, and then both Ferraris.

Two further days of testing remain, tomorrow and Saturday with on-track access between 7am – 11am GMT and 12pm – 4.30pm GMT and teams using one car between both their drivers.

To find out how to watch the on-track action, click here for Motor Sport’s full breakdown of F1’s 2023 pre-season test, including some intriguing storylines to watch out for over the coming days.

Day 1 afternoon classification – 4.30pm

Verstappen remained ahead of Alonso by just 0.029s: the 41-year-old double world champion a surprise addition to the top of the timesheets, leading the Ferrari pairing of Carlos Sainz in third and Charles Leclerc in fourth.

As the session went into the night, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris were among those to attempt push laps, the latter struggling with grip on the medium tyre compound. They ended the day sixth and fifth respectively: all of the top six setting their times on medium compound C3 tyres.

Driver	Team	Lap time	Gap	Laps completed
Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1min 32.837sec		157
Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1min 32.886sec	+0.029sec	60
Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1min 33.253sec	+0.416sec	72
Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1min 33.267sec	+0.430sec	64
Lando Norris	McLaren	1min 33.462sec	+0.625sec	40
Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1min 33.508sec	+0.671sec	83
Alex Albon	Williams	1min 33.671sec	+0.834sec	74
Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	1min 33.723sec	+0.886sec	67
George Russell	Mercedes	1min 34.174sec	+1.337sec	69
Logan Sargeant	Williams	1min 34.324sec	+1.487sec	75
Nico Hülkenberg	Haas	1min 34.424sec	+1.587sec	51
Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	1min 34.558sec	+1.721sec	71
Nyck De Vries	AlphaTauri	1min 34.559sec	+1.722sec	85
Felipe Drugovich	Aston Martin	1min 34.564sec	+1.722sec	40
Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1min 34.671sec	+1.834sec	46
Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1min 34.822sec	+1.985sec	60
Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1min 34.871sec	+2.034sec	53
Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1min 34.888sec	+2.051sec	52
Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1min 35.087sec	+2.250sec	57

An hour to go – 15.30pm

Verstappen continued to lead the way in an uneventful afternoon of testing, setting the fastest lap of the day on lap 109. Having competed in the morning session as well, the Dutchman passed the 130 laps mark at the Sakhir circuit — Alex Albon a distant second with 74.

Hamilton led the way among the drivers who sat out the morning session, going third fastest. A slow-starting Alonso soon found pace in an Aston Martin that had been limited due to a damaged floor, flying up to sixth just ahead of Ferrari’s Leclerc.

Small mistakes under braking littered Logan Sargeant‘s first F1 pre-season test, but the American has lapped within 1.4 seconds of the leading Red Bull.

Norris finally made his way onto the circuit after missing the first two hours of the session. The Briton, who was the only driver to secure a podium outside of Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes in 2022, moved into eighth on the timesheet.

 

The afternoon begins – 13.45pm 

Of the nine drivers that made their first appearance during the pre-season’s first afternoon session, only Leclerc and Hamilton have broken into the top ten.

Difficulties have continued for Aston Martin, with Alonso confined to his garage for vast majority of his testing so far. The Spaniard managed two laps before suffering some minor floor damage during the sessions early stages but has now made his way out onto the circuit.

Lando Norris has only managed five laps of on-track action so far, with his McLaren sidelined with apparent brake duct problems.

F1 rookies Logan Sargeant and Nyck de Vries also made their first appearances in full-time F1 seats, the Williams driver a second faster than his Dutch counterpart thus far.

 

Day 1 morning classification – 11.25am

Running is over on the first morning of F1 testing and there’s been little drama on the track as drivers racked up the laps. Max Verstappen was fastest on the mid-compound C3 tyre, 0.3sec ahead of Sainz on the same tyre, who was around 0.4sec faster than Alex Albon, running the soft C4 compound on a day when times are often unrepresentative, as teams get to grips with their new cars.

Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams, Alfa Romeo and Mercedes completed around 70 laps each but Felipe Drugovich was limited to 40 laps in the Aston Martin after breaking down with an electrical issue at the beginning of the session.

Driver	Team	Lap time	Gap	Laps completed
Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1min 32.959sec		71
Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1min 33.253sec	+0.294sec	72
Alex Albon	Williams	1min 33.671sec	+0.712sec	74
Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	1min 33.723sec	+0.764sec	67
George Russell	Mercedes	1min 34.174sec	+1.215sec	69
Nico Hülkenberg	Haas	1min 34.424sec	+1.465sec	51
Felipe Drugovich	Aston Martin	1min 34.564sec	+1.605sec	40
Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1min 34.671sec	+1.712sec	46
Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1min 34.822sec	+1.863sec	60
Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1min 34.888sec	+1.929sec	52

 

Max Verstappen tops the timesheets – 10.40am

Carlos Sainz had the fastest time for most of the morning, as the car circulated with little drama, until Verstappen became the first driver to dip below 1min 33sec. His 1min 32.959sec lap is 0.3sec faster than the Ferrari driver — not that times mean anything at this stage of testing, as teams work through their test programmes.

 

Sniffing around Ferrari’s flexible nose – 8.15am

A deforming patch on Ferrari’s nose has raised eyebrows; a dimple is appearing at higher speeds on the straights, which then disappears when the car slows. The issue is seemingly due to high pressure meeting a weak area of bodywork and Ferrari has said that it isn’t intentional and doesn’t bring any benefits. It anticipates that a fix will make the divot disappear later today.

The car is also exhibiting some of the porpoising that afflicted the grid in the early part of last year.

 

The first hour – 8am

Sainz and Ferrari are sat at the top of the time sheets after the first hour of testing with a 1:33.767 – one second faster than Haas‘s Nico Hülkenberg in second.

Verstappen and Red Bull are third and although fast, the RB19 has struggled with instability in its first test, suffering with understeer under braking.

There is then a substantial gap to fourth, with Alpine‘s Pierre Gasly 2.3 seconds off the leader, followed by Zhou Guanyu and Alfa Romeo (+2.4sec).

Aero rakes have been found on several cars including Mercedes, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo, with flow-vis also making an appearance on Alex Albon‘s Williams.

Tyre choices have been vast, with Hülkenberg being one of the first cars to run the soft C5 tyre, and the new hard C1 tyre also making an appearance – acting as a grippier version than last seasons C1 which has been pushed to C0.

Aston Martin remains plagued with electrical issues, restricting its on-track testing.

 

Aston Martin breaks down – 7.10am

Less than ten minutes into the session, Felipe Drugovich’s Aston Martin crawls to a halt at Turn 4 after leaving the pitlane, causing the first red flag of the day.

Aston Martin cause our first red flag of testing! 🟥 pic.twitter.com/7rl0MVzuTy

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) February 23, 2023

Red Bull reveals its RB19 – 7am

A New York livery reveal was all that Red Bull showed off before the Bahrain test, so the first glimpse of this year’s car came when the garage doors opened this morning.

The team looks to have followed a similar direction to Ferrari and further shrink-wrapped its sidepods, reducing bodywork to improve airflow and increase downforce. From the front wing to the rear floor, there are plenty of small details that have been tweaked, compared with last year’s RB18 and we’ll be looking art those in more detail later.

 

Who’s driving and when?

All 20 drivers on this years grid will appear over the three-day testing period, sharing one car per team.

A cycling injury during pre-season training in Barcelona means Lance Stroll will miss testing in Bahrain with Aston Martin – replaced by reserve driver Felipe Drugovich.

Elsewhere, Nico Hülkenberg will return with Haas to compete in his first F1 pre-season test since 2019, marking the end of a 2-year hiatus from a full-time seat. F1 rookies Nyck de Vries, Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant will also get their first taste of on-track action outside of private shakedowns – each with much to prove in their debut campaigns.

Here is the full list of Thursday’s testing schedules that have been confirmed so far.

Session	Driver
Thursday (AM)	Max Verstappen – Red Bull Felipe Drugovich – Aston Martin Nico Hulkenberg – Haas Yuki Tsunoda – AlphaTauri Alex Albon – Williams Carlos Sainz – Ferrari George Russell – Mercedes Zhou Guanyu – Alfa Romeo Oscar Piastri – McLaren Pierre Gasly – Alpine
Thursday (PM)	Max Verstappen – Red Bull Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin Kevin Magnussen – Haas Nyck De Vries – AlphaTauri Logan Sargeant – Williams Charles Leclerc – Ferrari Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo Lando Norris – McLaren Esteban Ocon – Alpine