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Live text

Barcelona F1 test day one

Live Standings

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Summary

  • Mercedes quickest nearing end of Day 1
  • Hamilton fastest so far, 0.3s clear of Bottas
  • Bottas quickest in morning session
  • Leclerc replaces unwell Vettel

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Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Formula 1 pre-season testing for 2020. It's still another 25 minutes before the pitlane is open and cars can grace the track, but there's been lots of activity in the pits and on the main straight at Barcelona already.
All the 2020 race drivers - even those not testing today - are now gathered on the main straight for photo ops. They just did a cinematic-looking march in line towards some cameras, so presumably expect to see that shot on your TVs at some point this year.
A late change of plans for Ferrari - Sebastian Vettel was set to drive its new car today, but is apparently not feeling so well and will thus yield his Wednesday duties to Charles Leclerc.
With that change, our driver line-up for today is:
Mercedes - Bottas (AM)/Hamilton (PM)
Ferrari - Leclerc
Red Bull - Verstappen
McLaren - Sainz
Renault - Ocon (AM)/Ricciardo (PM)
AlphaTauri - Kvyat
Racing Point - Perez (AM)/Stroll (PM)
Haas - Magnussen
Williams - Russell (AM)/Latifi (PM)
The pitlane has now gone fairly quiet with five minutes left until lights out. We're sat opposite to the Mercedes and Red Bull pitwalls, and both are empty as it stands.
F1 pre-season testing for 2020 is officially underway.
George Russell in the new Williams is the first car out of the pits - a fairly big contrast to 2019, wouldn't you say?
Also circulating already are Sainz, Magnussen, Bottas, Verstappen and Ocon.
Russell, whose Williams is fitted with some kiel probe arrays, does a couple of laps but returns to the pits, meaning he won't set a laptime just yet.
Instead, it's Bottas - his Mercedes likewise fitted with some big ol' sensors - who records our first F1 2020 lap time, a 1m29.375s on C2 tyres.
Kubica in the Alfa Romeo, Perez in the Racing Point and Leclerc in the Ferrari have also been out on track.
We've got a second time on the board, and it's a 1m33.080s from Leclerc. That's on C2s, 11 seconds off the pace, so not really particularly meaningful.
Bottas, who seems to be going for a proper long run right away, has now whittled the time down to a 1m21.783s.
Bottas and Leclerc return to the pits, so the track belongs entirely to Ocon as it stands.
And Ocon comes back in too, so we get our first break in action.
Russell has done another couple of laps with kiel probe arrays, and is back in again without recording a lap time.
The wheels and nosecone are now off the SF1000 in the Ferrari garage, so it might be a little while before we see Leclerc head out.
While we're waiting for track shots, you'll have to make do of this pic of the McLaren in the pits

While we're waiting for track shots, you'll have to make do of this pic of the McLaren in the pits

Sainz goes top in the McLaren, posting a 1m19.873s in C3.
Verstappen makes it four drivers with times on the board, a 1m23.158s on the C2 tyre taking him to third in the leaderboard.
Wondering how we could tell the wheels and nosecone were off the Ferrari? That's in part thanks to a new rule introduced for this year, which prevents teams from hiding their cars behind pesky garage screens.
New rule will stop F1 teams hiding cars behind screens at testing
Make that second place for Verstappen, and third place for a returning Leclerc, although both remain a second off Sainz's efforts.
Sainz improves to a 1m18.974s, while Leclerc moves up to second on a 1m20.012s.
Another improvement from Leclerc, who came up on Sainz in the final sector and comes over the line 0.712s slower.
Sainz fires in 1m18.479s and 1m18.423s back-to-back, extending his lead at the top of the timing screens. Perez in the Racing Point - on C4s compared to Sainz's C3s - is now up to second, nine tenths off.
It's been a busy start for last year's top four in the constructors' standings, as Sainz, Leclerc, Verstappen and Bottas all get over the 10-lap mark just half an hour in. Encouragingly, Williams looks set to be the fifth team to do so.
Live timing tells us Sainz is stopped in the second sector, but he emphatically is not, as he's just come into the pits - unless there's a rogue decoy McLaren running around.

By: Geoff Creighton

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