Red Bull’s Max Verstappen made an ominous start to Formula 1 pre-season testing with a lap time that put him more than a second clear of the field.
The three-time world champion was 1.14 seconds quicker than McLaren’s Lando Norris in second, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz 0.1secs behind in third.
Lap times in testing are notoriously unreliable form guides, because of the number of variables at play.
However, Verstappen’s car looked poised and quick whenever it was out on track.
Red Bull enter 2024 on the back of the most dominant season in F1 history last year, in which they won all but one of the 22 races.
The new RB20 car has drawn admiring glances up and down the pit lane for the number of innovations it includes, despite the team describing it as an “evolution” of last year’s model.
Verstappen ran all day in the Red Bull, completing 143 laps – more than two race distances – with no obvious problems, while many other teams split their running between two drivers.
And when he set his fastest time, his race engineer Giampiero Lambiase could be seen grinning with satisfaction in the Red Bull garage.
Fuel load, track conditions, time of day, tyres and power-unit settings are among the factors that can distort the competitive picture in testing as teams seek to hone their cars before the first race.
This season, the opener will come on 2 March at the Bahrain International Circuit, the same venue that is hosting this week’s three days of testing.
Those who ran in Wednesday’s first session, when track conditions were hotter and slower, were at an immediate disadvantage when it came to outright lap time.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, second and third behind Verstappen at the lunch break, still finished the day in overall seventh and eighth places though, despite handing their cars over to their team-mates at the lunch break.
However, Verstappen looked almost as strong in the morning as he proved in the afternoon – Leclerc was 0.8secs off his pace, Alonso less than 0.1secs further back.
Sainz had just 0.015secs on Daniel Ricciardo – driving for Red Bull’s second team, now known as RB. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was fifth fastest, followed by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
Mercedes, for whom George Russell was only 12th fastest, spent the first session working on bigger set-up changes, including on the floor, and then did long runs on harder tyres in the second, eschewing the single-lap runs completed by many rivals. Lewis Hamilton did not drive on Wednesday.
It was a difficult day for Williams. Their car was the last to take to the track for an initial shakedown test, running only the day before testing started, while all other teams had been out previously.
Logan Sargeant was 11th fastest but managed only 21 laps, punctuated with a spin at Turn Nine, before driveshaft problems ended his running.
Team-mate Alex Albon, who drove in the first session, completed 40 laps but stopped early with a fuel-pump failure.
Day one lap times
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – one minute 31.344 seconds
2. Lando Norris (McLaren) – 1:32.484
3. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) – 1:32.584
4. Daniel Ricciardo (RB) – 1:32.599
5. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) – 1:32.805
6. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) – 1:33.007
7. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 1:33.247*
8. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) – 1:33.385*
9. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – 1:33.658*
10. Zhou Guanyu (Sauber) -1:33.871
11. Logan Sargeant (Williams) – 1:33.882
12. George Russell (Mercedes) – 1:34.109
13. Yuki Tsunoda (RB) – 1:34.136*
14. Valtteri Bottas (Sauber) – 1:34.431*
15. Alex Albon (Williams) – 1:34.587
16. Esteban Ocon (Alpine) – 134.677*
17. Kevin Magnussen (Haas) – 1:35.692*
18. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) – 1:35.906
-
* = time set in morning session; all other times in afternoon/evening
-
Albon’s time set on C4 tyres, Russell on C2 and Ocon on C1. All others on C3. C5 is softest, C1 hardest.