BEVERLY HILLS, March 13, (THEWILL) – Formula One team Red Bull Racing put down the marker for the upcoming season when their Belgian-Dutch race car driver Max Verstappen topped the first day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain, while the 2021 campaign for Mercedes got off to a low-key start on Friday. The 23-year-old clocked a time of 1m30.674s, in the first hour of testing, with medium tyres on his RB16B, the Red Bull car for the new season, to stay on top until the chequered flag.
Unfortunately, the four-hour session was plagued by a sandstorm which lowered visibility and grip levels at the Bahrain International Circuit, making for difficult racing conditions. As a consequence, only a few cars ventured out on track and those who did gingerly got to grips with the conditions in the opening stages.
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The overall ninth best time was posted by Haas driver Nikita Mazepin making him the first driver to dislodge any of the 10 morning runners. Before him in eighth was AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who set that time in the opening hour on his official F1 testing debut for an encouraging start.
The debut of Carlos Sainz for the Ferrari SF21 came about three hours after teammate Charles Leclerc had to park the car with mechanical issues. Sainz was one of several drivers to lock his tyres and slide off on Sakhir’s sandy surface, with Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi also coming out early doors to acclimate to both the circuit and his updated Alfa Romeo for 2021.
It was just before the hour mark before world champion and now British knight Sir Lewis Hamilton made his first appearance of the 2021 season, starting his afternoon shift with seven exploratory laps aboard the W12, getting a feel of the machine and the dusty circuit.
The testing progressed strongly and Giovinazzi was the first driver to set a solid time in the second hour with a 1m32.860s on hard C2 tyres to go fourth in the Alfa, closely followed by Norris in the McLaren in fifth.
Verstappen took that as a challenge and stepped on the extra burners for a fast laptime. With his hard tyres, the Dutchman beat Daniel Ricciardo’s morning time by seven tenths 1h30 into the session, setting the new benchmark at 1m31.412s. Giovinazzi applied the same power to go second in the Alfa only to be overhauled at the halfway mark by Norris, who posted a 1m31.809s time.
There was not a challenge from Mercedes as during the latter half of the session desert sands continued filtering out a setting sun. However, the track’s floodlights pierced their way through the dust cover to provide some welcome visibility making sure to keep the path ahead of drivers clear. In these conditions, Esteban Ocon delivered a solid soft-shod lap in the Alpine to take second for the racing team formerly known as Renault.
Verstappen found some more pace on the mediums in the final hour to clock a 1m30.674, going nine tenths clear of Ocon. But, the Frenchman responded by taking half a second out of his personal best on the soft Pirelli tyres, his 1m31.146s half a second shy of the Red Bull time.
Norris took advantage of the final half hour to leapfrog Ocon’s Alpine with a 1m30.889 on mediums, pushing Ocon to third.
In the closing stages, returning unit Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll came in fourth after an initial delay explained as a “small electrical issue” on his AMR21. He posted a time of 1m31.782s on mediums in the fourth. Finishing fifth was Sainz, who suffered a spin during his afternoon stint but finished fifth on medium Pirellis with a late 1m31.919s.
In sixth was Giovinazzi, who was followed by Ricciardo’s in seventh place on the day, ahead of the AlphaTauri duo of Pierre Gasly and Tsunoda. And all the way in tenth was Hamilton after he rounded off a low-key start to his title defence in 2.238s down on Verstappen’s benchmark.
An undiagnosed gearbox issue forced Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas to run only six morning laps. Added to Hamilton’s 42 laps of his own, it meant Mercedes fell well short of completing their run plan. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was 11th, followed by fellow morning runners Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel in that order.
In 14th was Williams test driver Roy Nissany, ahead of Haas youngsters Mazepin and Schumacher as well as Bottas.
Added to his top finish, Verstappen also logged the most miles on the day, turning a massive 139 laps to his name.
The pre-season testing will resume on Saturday with two more four-hour sessions, followed by Sunday’s third and final 2021 pre-season testing day before the teams can prepare for the main event at Bahrain for the season opener.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
