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Formula 1

Barcelona F1 test day one

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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.
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.
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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.
It's been a productive morning so far for Verstappen in the Red Bull

It's been a productive morning so far for Verstappen in the Red Bull

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.
A 1m17.535s from Bottas on C2s takes him to second place, while Magnussen improves to a 1m18.558s.
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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
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.
Ocon shaves four tenths off his best time but stays fifth fastest, almost exactly two-thirds of a second down on Perez.
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.
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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
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...
Replays show Sainz locking his right-front heading into Turn 1 and cutting across the Turn 2 run-off.
And now Perez has backed well off in the second sector - he tricked us again!
Perez is pushing in the first sector, but he's just adrift of the best time there.
Sainz improves McLaren's personal best to a 1m18.001s in fourth on the C2s.
Verstappen's time is 0.4s off the top spot.
Behind Perez, Verstappen moved Red Bull up to P2 on the C2s.
Stopwatch
New best time for Perez - a 1m17.375s on the C3s.
Verstappen is out setting personal bests for Red Bull.
Purple sector two for Perez.
But we've been burned before here...
Perez goes quickest in sector one for Racing Point.
(This isn't Luke writing about himself, by the way, that would be weird)
Luke now reports that Russell's improvement takes Williams to a time it didn't reach until the penultimate day of 2019 testing.
Russell's now done a 1m19.293s, which puts Williams in seventh place.
Our F1 reporter Luke Smith reports (see what we did there?) Russell's 1m20.729s is faster than any time Williams set in the first test last year - where of course it missed the first two full days.
Russell's time is 2.8s off Bottas's best, and puts Williams into P10, but he's done 22 laps so far.
And Williams are on the board at last - Russell sets a 1m20.729s on a the C4 tyres.
Replays show Bottas caught a big snap of oversteer as he completed his last lap, but that wasn't his fast run.
Stopwatch
And Bottas goes fastest with a 1m17.833s on the C2s.
Bottas could be about to improve - two personal best sectors so far.
And Ocon does improve his best time to a 1m18.491s, but he stays fifth.
Ocon is on the move again - he sets two personal bests in the opening sectors.
Ocon jumps up to fifth for Renault with a 1m18.614s on the C3s.
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Here's a lap count so far for you - strong start for Red Bull:

Verstappen 36
Sainz 34
Bottas 24
Leclerc 24
Russell 19
Kvyat 19
Perez 18
Magnussen 16
Ocon 15
Kubica 15
And Magnussen completes the sweep to move up to fifth for Haas on a 1m19.433s on the C3s.

By: Geoff Creighton

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