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Barcelona F1 test day one

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Hamilton's second flying lap is a couple of tenths slower than his first. Meanwhile, Kvyat has a Turn 15 moment that's virtually identical to Latifi's from a few minutes earlier.
Hamilton returns to the circuit on C3s, and his very first flying lap takes him to third place, just 0.369s slower than his morning pace-setter team-mate Bottas.
Pushing to improve further, Latifi gets a big snap over the kerbs exiting the penultimate corner, but hangs on to the car.
Latifi now posts a 1m19.258s on the C4s. He's a second off Russell as it stands, but it's a decent start by the looks of it.
Latifi's first timed effort allows the Williams debutant to leapfrog Giovinazzi, as he laps 2.581s off the pace.
Verstappen returns to the track post-spin, and his first lying lap is a solid low-1m18s on C2 tyres.
With 40 minutes of the afternoon session gone, the timesheets are largely unchanged.

1 Bottas 1m17.313s
2 Perez 1m17.375s
3 Verstappen 1m17.787s
4 Sainz 1m18.001s
5 Ocon 1m18.004s
6 Russell 1m18.168s
7 Leclerc 1m18.289s
8 Kubica 1m18.386s
9 Magnussen 1m18.466s
10 Kvyat 1m18.484s
11 Hamilton 1m18.687s
12 Giovinazzi 1m20.096s
Leclerc's almost certainly doing some fairly heavy-fuel running now as he's been in the 1m21s range for several consecutive laps.
Giovinazzi's second and third flyers are quicker, as he improves to a 1m20.096s but stays a distant 12th for now.
Giovinazzi is now out turning his first laps in the Alfa Romeo C39. No timed laps from Latifi yet, as he comes back into the pits with flow-viz all over the rear of the new Williams.
Leclerc comes through the pits to do a practice start on pit exit. He's now joined on track by Williams rookie Nicholas Latifi.
With Verstappen's car now on the stands, it is now Leclerc who has joined Hamilton out on track.
There's been a spin for Verstappen heading into the chicane in the final sector, as he lost the car on the outside kerb on entry. No visible damage, but the tyres are presumably cooked, and he thus comes back into the pits.
Smaller improvement from Hamilton this time by, just by two tenths, and therefore he stays last. His next lap is a mid-1m20s.
Verstappen has done a practice pitstop by the sound of it, whereas Hamilton has continued on, improving to a 1m18.853s. He's still 11th and last for now but surely won't be for very long.
Hamilton's first lap is a 1m21.369s, as he is joined by Verstappen on track.
A reminder that apart from Hamilton taking over from Bottas, there are midday driver changes at Racing Point (Stroll in for Perez), Alfa Romeo (Giovinazzi in for Kubica), Renault (Ricciardo in for Ocon) and Williams (Latifi in for Russell).
And indeed, Lewis Hamilton heads out in the Mercedes on C3s, kicking off his 2020 season (sort of) with a practice start.
Make that five minutes, track's still silent, although there were some fire-up-like sounds coming seemingly from the vicinity of the Mercedes garage.
First two minutes down, but no cars have emerged back out on track yet. Presumably the drivers are still in the middle of their post-lunch naps.
After a lunch break and a somewhat quirky four-driver press conference, we're back underway for the afternoon session of the opening day of testing.
Since joining Autosport earlier this month, LUKE SMITH has been a busy chap. Before testing, we sent him to Baku to sit down with Liberty Media supremo Chase Carey, who revealed that the revised commercial terms for teams in the updated Concorde Agreement will be "better for everybody".

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/148325/carey-comfortable-with-new-f1-deal-negotiations
Only one non-racer out testing this morning, with Williams refugee Robert Kubica doing the early running in the Alfa Romeo. Of course, it wasn't always like that - on this day in 2003, Williams had Marc Gene in action at Barcelona, while Renault used the services of Allan McNish, then fresh out of a race seat at Toyota.

Only one non-racer out testing this morning, with Williams refugee Robert Kubica doing the early running in the Alfa Romeo. Of course, it wasn't always like that - on this day in 2003, Williams had Marc Gene in action at Barcelona, while Renault used the services of Allan McNish, then fresh out of a race seat at Toyota.

For those of you wondering who totted up the most laps in the first session, wonder no further:

Verstappen 91
Bottas 75
Russell 73
Leclerc 64
Sainz 64
Ocon 62
Kubica 59
Perez 58
Magnussen 55
Kvyat 54
It was a good morning for Racing Point, it's near copy of last year's Mercedes lapping just 0.062s slower in Perez's hands.

It was a good morning for Racing Point, it's near copy of last year's Mercedes lapping just 0.062s slower in Perez's hands.

Just 1.171s between Bottas in first and Kvyat in tenth in the end. We wouldn't mind seeing that all season, but this is only the first morning of testing after all.
Chequered flag. Valtteri Bottas tops the opening session of 2020 pre-season testing for Mercedes.
With just under a minute left on the clock, Kvyat looked on course to finally escape 10th place with two personal-best sectors - but he came into the pits instead.
As a point of reference, the fastest time from day one of last year's test was a 1m18.161s set by Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari, so we're already well below that with the afternoon session still to come.
Bottas pops up with a 1m18.486s and a 1m17.556s, both of which would've been good enough for second place if he weren't already topping the session.
Magnussen has been down the escape road at Turn 9 after a big lock-up, but has returned to the track unscathed. Kvyat has improved but once, but he still remains in 10th place.
Kvyat shaves another two tenths, but still cannot usurp Magnussen. Eight minutes left now.
Kvyat has emerged on what appear to be C3s, and looks to be on a decent timed lap now - so we might be in for a late change in order after all.

By: Geoff Creighton

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