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Barcelona F1 test day one

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Vettel goes even faster at the top of the board, with a 1m19.703s. That's a corker. Or is it? We'll have to wait and see until later in the day for that.
Vettel sets off for a hot lap on the C2 tyres he's used all morning, the same ones that have powered him to the top of the timing screens.

Hulkenberg is edging out on track now too, and Perez has followed.
That video clip of Raikkonen in the gravel is from much earlier in this morning's running. The 2007 champion caused 2019's first red flag by putting his Alfa off the road just five minutes into the session, and then - as the video shows - got stuck. But he was soon back out and challenging Vettel's Ferrari for the top spot.
Sebastian Vettel is the first man out on track. He looked pretty racey just before the red flag for Grosjean's stoppage.

Verstappen is following him out now.
One observation on that pic just below, by our brilliant technical editor Jake Boxall-Legge. The upright and removed headrest on that car looks, somewhat ironically, like someone cheering. No applause for a broken car, please.
The recovery truck is on its way back with the troubled Haas getting a piggyback. Hopefully that means we'll be back to full running soon.
Not long before this break for the stopped Haas of Romain Grosjean, Max Verstappen got the first few laps of the Red Bull Honda-era underway.

The Dutch driver has now completed five laps, using the popular C3 Pirellis. That tyre is popular in the media centre too, as it's yellow is the only shade of the new Pirelli range that only has one tyre per colour. More C3 running please, F1 teams.
Another look at the Haas recovery from our Technical Editor Jake Boxall-Legge, who's doing technical observations trackside at the moment

Another look at the Haas recovery from our Technical Editor Jake Boxall-Legge, who's doing technical observations trackside at the moment

This is the second red flag of the morning, the first caused by Kimi Raikkonen getting stuck in the gravel very early on at Turn 5.

The Haas is still being recovered. It has been covered, though. No investigating the Haas car's secrets until it's (hopefully) back out on track later.
The wonderfully retro recovery truck has gone to meet the Haas. Inevitably, it will be covered with some sort of sheet before it gets back to the pits. These F1 teams are a secretive lot.
There's a lot of marshals surrounding the Haas, presumably to try to uncover all of its secrets at the start of the season.
Grosjean is out of the car. Still no red flag on track though...
Testing is the first chance to have a detailed look at the parts of cars teams were keeping coy about in their well-managed launches. Here's a Ferrari 2019 rear wing

Testing is the first chance to have a detailed look at the parts of cars teams were keeping coy about in their well-managed launches. Here's a Ferrari 2019 rear wing

There's a lovely Mercedes people carrier circulating the infield, but no sign of the same manufacturers' car on track just yet as Bottas lies seventh so far with 23 laps of running.
He's got us! Sainz is straight back out after dipping into the pits.
The sun is bursting out over the grandstand for the small group of spectators who have come to watch today. No surprise, their favourite is Carlos Sainz.

Just as we say that, he returns to the pits to disappoint the onlookers. Raikkonen and Grosjean on track.
Bottas has returned to the pits, so that leaves us with Raikkonen, Grosjean and Sainz circling on track.
Verstappen is back into the pits after his first proper spell of running in the Red Bull Honda era. Sainz came in and tried to confuse us by going straight back out. We're better than that, Carlos...
Raikkonen, Sainz, Verstappen and Bottas are all on track at the moment. That's about as busy as we've had it at any individual stage this morning.
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.
Verstappen continues, improving to a 1m21.808s to move up the order to fifth.
Verstappen does indeed stay out, posting a 1m23.179s on C3 tyres to move ahead of Hulkenberg into eighth.
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...
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".
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.
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.
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.
Another improvement for Sainz - 1m21.403s which puts him third.
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.
Sainz improves to a 1m21.975s on C2s, and Grosjean improves again to go third with a 1m21.500s.
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.
Another improvement for Grosjean as this run continues - 1m21.954s and he's up to fourth.
Grosjean's first timed lap of the day is a 1m23.968s, which puts him above Bottas into sixth.

By: Geoff Creighton

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