Barcelona F1 test day one
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Verstappen is out setting personal bests for Red Bull.
Stopwatch
New best time for Perez - a 1m17.375s on the C3s.
Behind Perez, Verstappen moved Red Bull up to P2 on the C2s.
Verstappen's time is 0.4s off the top spot.
Sainz improves McLaren's personal best to a 1m18.001s in fourth on the C2s.
Perez is pushing in the first sector, but he's just adrift of the best time there.
And now Perez has backed well off in the second sector - he tricked us again!
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Replays show Sainz locking his right-front heading into Turn 1 and cutting across the Turn 2 run-off.
Not a huge amount happening right now - but Jake Boxall-Legge looks like he's nearly finished his Racing Point tech feature. He says he's very pleased with the intro, but we'll let you be the judge of that...
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Here's how things stand midway through the morning session:
1 Perez 1m17.375s
2 Verstappen +0.412s
3 Bottas +0.458s
4 Sainz +0.626s
5 Leclerc +1.019s
6 Ocon +1.116s
7 Russell +1.806s
8 Magnussen +2.058s
9 Kubica +2.541s
10 Kvyat +2.759s
1 Perez 1m17.375s
2 Verstappen +0.412s
3 Bottas +0.458s
4 Sainz +0.626s
5 Leclerc +1.019s
6 Ocon +1.116s
7 Russell +1.806s
8 Magnussen +2.058s
9 Kubica +2.541s
10 Kvyat +2.759s
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Verstappen and Leclerc are currently in the process of doing some 1m19s longruns, with Verstappen's pace particularly consistent. Check out this set of laps on the C2s - 1m19.557s, 1m19.552s, 1m19.483s, 1m19.400s.
Ocon shaves four tenths off his best time but stays fifth fastest, almost exactly two-thirds of a second down on Perez.
Worth noting, Perez's current benchmark of 1m17.375s is already faster than the top effort from the opening day last year. That was a 1m18.161s from Vettel.
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Lap counts so far:
Verstappen 49
Sainz 42
Bottas 36
Leclerc 33
Russell 31
Ocon 25
Perez 24
Kvyat 23
Magnussen 22
Kubica 22
Verstappen 49
Sainz 42
Bottas 36
Leclerc 33
Russell 31
Ocon 25
Perez 24
Kvyat 23
Magnussen 22
Kubica 22
A 1m17.535s from Bottas on C2s takes him to second place, while Magnussen improves to a 1m18.558s.
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Since moving up to second place, Bottas has done: 1m18.726s, 1m19.089s, 1m19.373s, 1m19.741s, 1m19.377s, 1m19.142s, 1m19.329s. A very sensible-looking run, though not quite Verstappen-level metronome.
It's been a productive morning so far for Verstappen in the Red Bull
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George Russell has just managed a 1m18.534s on used C4s, to move up to seventh. That's already half a second better than what he had managed in Barcelona qualifying last year, and is just four tenths off his best time from the entire pre-season last year.
Russell's also done a 1m18.6s to go with his 1m18.5s, so it's pretty clear the new Williams is having little trouble keeping the kind of pace it largely struggled to get near last year. But it's as you'd expect, probably.
Sainz is lapping with some flow-viz all over his left front suspension and bargeboards, and is running about half a second off his best times on the C2s.
A very minor improvement from Ocon takes him to a 1m18.026s on C3s, as he stays fifth. Besides Williams, Renault and Racing Point are the two other teams to have already surpassed their best qualifying efforts from 2019.
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Improvements have been few and far between since the last leaderboard update:
1 Perez 1m17.375s
2 Bottas +0.160s
3 Verstappen +0.412s
4 Sainz +0.626s
5 Ocon +0.651s
6 Leclerc +1.019s
7 Russell +1.159s
8 Magnussen +1.183s
9 Kubica +2.541s
10 Kvyat +2.759s
1 Perez 1m17.375s
2 Bottas +0.160s
3 Verstappen +0.412s
4 Sainz +0.626s
5 Ocon +0.651s
6 Leclerc +1.019s
7 Russell +1.159s
8 Magnussen +1.183s
9 Kubica +2.541s
10 Kvyat +2.759s
First observations from our technical expert TIM WRIGHT, who has been watching the opening couple of hours with keen intent. Having been keeping a watchful eye on Renault down the straight, he reports that it's sparking a lot more than the rest, perhaps running less clearance than some of the other cars.
Kvyat does a practice start in the AlphaTauri on pitlane exit - it looked alright - and now slots in behind Verstappen on track.
Leclerc improves to a 1m18.308s with the first flying lap of his current run, but it's not enough to move him up in the classification.
Stopwatch
Fastest second and third sectors of the session for Bottas, and the Finn duly takes over out front with a 1m17.317s, on C3s.
Autosport
Kvyat is back out on track after a brief stutter in the pitlane, which prompted the AlphaTauri mechanics to wheel his car back to the garage temporarily.
He and team-mate Pierre Gasly will be hoping there's no further stuttering in their careers this year but, even so, they remain in a limbo of sorts for the time being.
He and team-mate Pierre Gasly will be hoping there's no further stuttering in their careers this year but, even so, they remain in a limbo of sorts for the time being.
Magnussen posts a 1m18.466s to overtake Russell for seventh place.
Leclerc's run after his new personal best of 1m18.308s was as follows: 19.176, 19.499, 19.817, 20.047. Verstappen, meanwhile, is being extremely consistent again in the 1m19.1-19.5s range.
Kubica's improved to a 1m19.833s on what we very cautiously believe may have been C1s. It's really quite hard to tell in motion.
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The media centre is currently in collective agony because a horrifying continuous beep is being played over the loudspeaker. It keeps modulating... but it never stops. I am typing this through tears.
Russell takes seventh place back from Magnussen, courtesy of a 1m18.460s on C4s.
The beep did stop, by the way, and everyone looks to have just about recovered. No obvious explanation what it was just yet, but we'll keep you posted if some beep-related news emerge.
Here's the man who is currently on top of the pile. Bottas has so far completed 59 laps in the new Mercedes W11, second only to Red Bull's Max Verstappen in the total accumulated thus far.
Another small improvement from Ocon, a 1m18.004s on C3s. He stays fifth. There's just under an hour left in the morning session.
A 1m19.2s, 1m19.4s, 1m19.4s run from Ocon here on С3 concludes with the Frenchman returning to the pits. Russell is all alone on track at the moment.
By: Geoff Creighton
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