Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped Day One of 2023 F1 Pre-Season Test in Bahrain.
Verstappen set the quickest lap time of 1m 32.837 midway through the afternoon session to begin his two-time title defence with the perfect start.
Fernando Alonso was second-fastest on debut for Aston Martin ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, whilst McLaren’s Lando Norris rounded out the top five.
Morning Session
Mercedes; George Russell led a flurry of cars straight out onto the track once the pit exit light went green, but the session was red flagged just over 10 minutes later after Aston Martin’s Reserve Driver, Felipe Drugovich grinded to a halt at Turn 4.
Drugovich though was able to quickly resume the session once the issue was fixed once back in the garage, with the Brazilian only called up for this test due to Lance Stroll having suffered a training accident which ruled the Canadian out.
The session resumed after a 20 minute delay with Verstappen having gone quickest prior to the red flag with 1m 35.655, and the Dutchman found 0.760 seconds in the 42nd minute to lower his benchmark to 1m 34.895.
Sainz though popped up just before the hour mark to go fastest with 1m 33.767, which was beaten just 20 minutes later by Williams’ Alex Albon who posted 1m 33.671 to go quickest.
Verstappen however bettered Albon’s effort in the 89th minute to go top by 0.078s before Sainz went 0.340s quicker just four minutes later, with the trio occupying the top three positions on the timesheet at the halfway mark.
Everyone else meanwhile ran to their own testing programme rather than chase fast lap times in a quiet second half of the morning session, as Verstappen eventually went fastest with just under 40 minutes left on the clock with 1m 32.959 to top the morning session.
Sainz, Albon, Guanyu Zhou and George Russell rounded out the top five ahead of Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg in sixth, whilst Drugovich managed a solid seventh-placed finish ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly and Oscar Piastri.
Afternoon Session
Only Red Bull’s Verstappen remained in his car after the lunch break as all nine other teams opted to rotate their drivers, with Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris amongst a host of drivers to get their first taste of F1 testing in 2023, aside from pre-season shakedowns.
A quiet start however saw no drivers venture out on track in the opening 13 minutes until Verstappen eventually made his way onto the circuit, continuing his day-long programme.
None of the nine afternoon runners though were able to carve their way into the top ten in the opening hour, although Leclerc was just 0.008s off Piastri.
Leclerc eventually became the first afternoon runner to break into the top ten as he went sixth fastest in the 84th minute, only to be displaced two minutes later as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton went fifth fastest with Alonso the only other driver to break into the top ten in the first two hours.
Verstappen meanwhile lowered his benchmark time in the 123rd minute to 1m 32.837 which proved the fastest overall time of the day.
Alonso provided the biggest surprise of the day as he posted 1m 32.866 in the 206th minute to ultimately go second quickest and just 0.029s off Verstappen’s time.
Norris meanwhile improved to fifth with 16 minutes left to round out the top five of the opening day of testing.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 32.837 |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.029 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.416 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.430 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.625 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.671 |
| 7 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.834 |
| 8 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 0.886 |
| 9 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 1.337 |
| 10 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 1.487 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 1.587 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 1.721 |
| 13 | Nyck De Vries | AlphaTauri | + 1.722 |
| 14 | Felipe Drugovich | Aston Martin | + 1.727 |
| 15 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.834 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 1.985 |
| 17 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 2.034 |
| 18 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 2.051 |
| 19 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 2.250 |
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