Barcelona F1 test day one
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You can't get better dead space filler material than weather chat. It's 9.6 degrees air temperature, 18.3 degrees track temperature. Pretty cloudy, too.
Green flag
Green flag to open the track, but nobody quite fancies finishing lunch just yet.
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Before we get going again for the afternoon running from day one at Barcelona, here's how the lap count looks at lunch:
Hulkenberg 73;
Hartley 72;
Ricciardo 60;
Raikkonen 60;
Bottas 58;
Stroll 46;
Ericsson 41;
Grosjean 32;
Mazepin 22;
Alonso 10
Shout out to Honda for that Toro Rosso mileage with Hartley.
Hulkenberg 73;
Hartley 72;
Ricciardo 60;
Raikkonen 60;
Bottas 58;
Stroll 46;
Ericsson 41;
Grosjean 32;
Mazepin 22;
Alonso 10
Shout out to Honda for that Toro Rosso mileage with Hartley.
Autosport
Far from an ideal start to testing for McLaren, with Alonso completing just 10 laps in this morning's session after losing a wheel. McLaren boss Zak Brown insists that early setback is "no big deal": 
Autosport
And if you enjoy that, you can find all of ex-Jordan and Jaguar F1 designer GARY ANDERSON's thoughts on the 2018 F1 cars here: ![Gary Anderson - Autosport]()
Autosport
GARY ANDERSON has been examining the new Toro Rosso this morning, and he reckons the small team has scored a few important early tech wins in the first months of working with Honda: 
Autosport
Here's the full report and results table from the first morning of running: 
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Day one order at lunchtime: 1 Ricciardo, 2 Bottas, 3 Raikkonen, 4 Hulkenberg, 5 Hartley, 6 Stroll, 7 Grosjean, 8 Alonso, 9 Ericsson, 10 Mazepin.
Ericsson also fancies a practice start. A few of the drivers (Hulkenberg lines up as we type this) have been fooled by the five red lights being on - they are signalling that the track action has stopped for lunch, so they are not there for practice starts.
Bottas and Raikkonen come around again for a practice start, as does Hartley.
1m24.897s for Ericsson. Another improvement, but he's still ninth.
Ericsson fancies another pre-lunch personal best here.
Alonso pits without setting a representative time on those super-softs.
Checkered flag
Chequered flag - the first half-day of F1 winter testing is complete.
Ericsson improves - still down in ninth - on mediums. Alonso is back on track now, running super-softs.
Two minutes until the track action breaks for lunch.
We know Red Bull are watching closely after their query about our timing box. Perhaps they saw our concerns about fan reactions to Mercedes leading the first morning of testing, too?
Stopwatch
Now Ricciardo goes fastest! 1m20.179s for the Red Bull on mediums.
Raikkonen has returned to the track since being demoted at the top by Bottas, although so far on this soft-tyre run he's posted 1m28s and 1m24s, so he's not troubling the Mercedes.
Bottas pits, so no further improvements for Mercedes... yet.
Bottas could be winding up for another one here, he's quickest through the first sector.
Bottas has just changed all the lunchtime headlines there. Let's hope there aren't too many groans from fans when they see Mercedes on top already.
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Stopwatch
Bottas goes fastest on mediums with a 1m20.349s.
Alonso returns straight to the pits so McLaren can check things over.
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Bottas improves to a 1m20.876s, but stays fourth. He's cleared 50 laps for the day now, too.
Alonso returns! McLaren will get to make use of the extra 10 minutes we have before lunch is called, owing to a delayed start this morning.
Next time through Hartley pits, having just improved and already with 63 laps on the board. Not bad for day one with Honda.
Hartley puts us out of our misery and does improve on softs - 1m22.371s for the Toro Rosso.
Grosjean is also getting in on the act of not improving despite running softs. His last lap was 0.7s down on his best, but he's improved in the first sector next time around.
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Hulkenberg punishes us for suggesting he might go quicker just because he's put a softer tyre compound on - his first lap is more than two seconds down on his best.
Softs for Hulkenberg as well, so perhaps he can do something about that 0.041s gap to Raikkonen at the top of the order.
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Hulkenberg is back out as well, joining the two Red Bull owned teams, so we have four cars in action.
Grosjean is on softs, so we could see an improvement before the lunchbreak here.
Grosjean reappears in the Haas, which has only logged 18 laps so far today. Were it not for McLaren's pitiful tally of six laps, Haas would be at the bottom of the mileage counter.
By: Geoff Creighton
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