Barcelona F1 test day one
Live Text
Sort by
Oldest first
Autosport
Quiet at the track? You'll need something to listen to - such as Gary Anderson's rundown of what the F1 teams will be up to today in the latest Autosport podcast:
Kvyat breaks the silence on track, followed by Bottas.
We're going to guess this conversation from about half an hour ago went something like: "Sorry I went into the gravel straight away, but I'll go back out and come very close to knocking my old team off first place if you want?"
Kvyat returns after another installation lap, while our current pacesetter Vettel heads back out.
Kvyat's back out... and he's back in again. Bottas also returns to the pits, and Perez heads out.
Crash
Vettel spins!
Green flag
No major drama for the Ferrari driver, who just looped it around exiting the final chicane. He headed into the run-off to turn around, and stayed out to get this run going. Cold tyres (C2s, if you're asking), we reckon.
Perez sets his first time of the day, going fourth with a 1m24.049s. It looks like he's on unmarked tyres - last year those were one of the normal compounds, but just produced from a different Pirelli factory as the supplier made sure its back-up facility was producing compounds to the exact same specification as its main base.
Perez improves to a 1m22.498s. He's still fourth, and is currently sharing the track with Vettel.
Now Perez moves up to third with a 1m21.850s on the unmarked tyres. Based on last year we reckon those will be C3s, as normally the unmarked tyres are the compound that's in the middle of the range. But we'll check and confirm for you shortly.
Twitter
Perez returns to the pits, having taken in the old penultimate corner of the track, presumably because he couldn't be bothered with the chicane one last time on this run.
Vettel starts his 20th lap of the day, while Hulkenberg reappears in the Renault.
Scott Mitchell
The unmarked tyre isn't from Pirelli's other facility this time. It's a slight variation on the C3 compound, being run for development purposes here.
Vettel returns to the pits. Hulkenberg is out there on - you guessed it - the yellow C3s. Presumably Renault's livery means the team is obliged to run tyres that match it at all times.
A bit of news worth keeping in mind for F1 in the 2020s...? Red Bull signs a new teenage protege: 
Information
Drivers we've not seen times from yet this morning: Grosjean (3 laps), Kvyat (7 laps), Verstappen (1 lap).
Hulkenberg improves to a 1m23.665s on C3s with his 15th lap of the day.
Twitter
Silent track again. We blame Hulkenberg, as he was the last car to come in.
Visually slightly interesting new things to look out for in F1 2019 #1: Kvyat's rather elegant new helmet design. Very classic.
Visually slightly interesting new things to look out for in F1 2019 #2: The logo/punctuation hybrid on Racing Point's halo
Visually slightly interesting new things to look out for in F1 2019 #3: Sainz in a McLaren hat
You have to put some work in to get a shot of a Ferrari in the pits during testing, as the team has perfected the art of screen use when the thing comes to a stop. We managed to grab a quick snap of Vettel returning to the pits just now
Grosjean stays out to start his first proper run of the day (we hope) on white C2s. Sainz rejoins the action too.
Grosjean's first timed lap of the day is a 1m23.968s, which puts him above Bottas into sixth.
Another improvement for Grosjean as this run continues - 1m21.954s and he's up to fourth.
Kvyat has worked out that you are allowed to complete more than one lap at a time, and he crosses the start/finish line on a set of white C2s.
Sainz improves to a 1m21.975s on C2s, and Grosjean improves again to go third with a 1m21.500s.
Kvyat delights one half of our commentary team (the one who finds installation laps infuriating, apparently) by finally posting a time - 1m25.840s on C2s.
Another improvement for Sainz - 1m21.403s which puts him third.
During all this excitement we've seen a second lap of the day for Verstappen in the Red Bull. He's now back in the pits.
Kvyat improves to a 1m23.500s, moving him up to sixth.
Kvyat improves again to a 1m22.985s. He's got 12 laps in the books now, as Toro Rosso charges away from Red Bull on the lap count to move 10 clear. Perhaps that year of Honda experience is paying off right now.
Bottas posts his first improvement for a while, a 1m23.148s. He's seventh out of the eight drivers to have set a time so far today.
Scott Mitchell
Williams isn't running today and the question now is "When will it be able to?" - as its car is still back in the UK.
The build of the FW42 has been delayed and the car is still at Grove so the team can crack on with the build before transporting it here.
A brief guess would suggest it's at least two-thirds of a day to get to Barcelona by truck. So that suggests an early Tuesday AM arrival is the most optimistic Williams can be. Whether that means it'll hit the track in the morning, which the team had targeted, remains to be seen.
No further update from Williams itself beyond wanting to run "as soon as is humanly possible".
The build of the FW42 has been delayed and the car is still at Grove so the team can crack on with the build before transporting it here.
A brief guess would suggest it's at least two-thirds of a day to get to Barcelona by truck. So that suggests an early Tuesday AM arrival is the most optimistic Williams can be. Whether that means it'll hit the track in the morning, which the team had targeted, remains to be seen.
No further update from Williams itself beyond wanting to run "as soon as is humanly possible".
Red Bull wins the award for 'car that sounds weirdest while on tickover' after Verstappen sat still for a bit in the pits before heading out. He's stayed on track to start a timed lap, so we could be about to get our first Red Bull-Honda lap time...
Verstappen does indeed stay out, posting a 1m23.179s on C3 tyres to move ahead of Hulkenberg into eighth.
Verstappen continues, improving to a 1m21.808s to move up the order to fifth.
If you're on Honda speed watch, last time around Verstappen crossed the finish line 4km/h down on the fastest we've seen so far. But remember the start/finish line is quite early on the straight, so that's not an indicator of top speed.
By: Geoff Creighton
Published:
Page:
