Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was quickest on Day 1 of F1 pre-season test in Barcelona ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Haas’ Romain Grosjean.
Vettel set the time of 1m18.161s which was four tenths quicker than Sainz (1m18.558s). The German completed 169 laps to Sainz’s 119 with former using the C3 (soft) compound and latter C4 (supersoft).
Grosjean (1m19.159s) did well in third but his run was limited to just the 65 laps due to fuel pressure loss in the morning session. The Frenchman set his best time on C3 (soft) compound as Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen ended up fourth.
The Dutchman clocked 1m19.426s lap time with 128 laps on board using the C3 (soft) compound. After causing the day’s first red flag, Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m19.462s) was back out to end up fifth using the same C3 compound.
The Finn still managed to complete 114 laps with Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat lining up sixth ahead of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez – the former only completing 30 laps to the former’s 77 as teething issues and oil leak limited Perez’s running.
Kvyat set his best time of 1m19.464s on the C4 (supersoft) compound while Perez did his 1m19.944s on the C3 compound. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (1m20.127s) was only eighth with the Finn completing 69 laps in the morning session.
His teammate Lewis Hamilton (1m20.135s) took over in the afternoon to be ninth with 81 laps on board as both opted to use the C2 (hard) compound. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the 11 drivers out on track on Day 1.
The German drove for 65 laps in the morning session with a best of 1m20.980s with Ricciardo completing 44 laps with a best of 1m20.983s in his afternoon run.