F1 Bahrain pre-season test - Day 1
Minute by minute updates on the opening day of the 2023 F1 Bahrain pre-season test
Testing starts on Thursday 23 February at 07:00 GMT (10:00 local time) and runs until Saturday. All three days follow the same schedule, with running taking place from 10:00 until 14:15, and from 15:15 until 19:30 (all local time), pausing for a lunch break.
All 10 teams are set to be in action for the Bahrain pre-season test, which is the only pre-season test ahead of the 2023 season.
More: F1 Bahrain test driver line-up
The Bahrain pre-season test will take place on 23-25 February ahead of the 2023 F1 season opener at the same venue, the Bahrain Grand Prix, on 3-5 March.
Live Text
Sort by
Stopwatch
Logan Sargeant is now up to ninth overall as the quickest of the rookies
Max Verstappen has now put in 126 laps and is 0.4s clear of Carlos Sainz in second. Blimey.
Bonjour Theo! 2022 F2 runner-up and Alfa Romeo reserve driver Theo Pourchaire is down in the garage keeping an eye on things
Yuki Tsunoda has been "quite positive" about this year's AlphaTauri, says team boss Franz Tost
Hamilton running a little bit wide at Turn 4 there, as many others have before him
Just over 90 minutes remaining of today's running and Verstappen leads from Sainz and Hamilton, with Albon and Zhou rounding off the top five
Max Verstappen looking pretty chill in the garage chatting to Christian Horner - no sense of them feeling pressure down at Red Bull!
Just two cars out on track at the moment - Lando Norris and Nyck de Vries - as the sun sets over the circuit
As "spot the reserve driver" continues, Pietro Fittipaldi is keeping an eye on proceedings down at Haas. His younger brother Enzo joined Red Bull's Junior Team late last year
Lando Norris sets another time but fails to improve, with a 1m37.110s leaving him five seconds off Verstappen at the top.
Stopwatch
Despite his AlphaTauri running *very* low, Nyck de Vries improves to 13th with a 1m34.782s
Just over two hours remaining of today's action, who will end the day on top?
Stopwatch
Verstappen's first push lap of this run sees him go even faster, a 1m32.837s on the C3 tyres, to extend his advantage at the top. With that, it is time to hand over the controls once again, as Megan White will take you through the next part of the action.
Verstappen is back out on track after a break in the Red Bull garage, he's taking it easy on the out-lap, getting his tyre and brake temperatures up, before getting on with his next workload.
Twitter
Williams hasn't skimped on the flow-vis paint this week, as Sargeant's car is covered in the stuff once again. It certainly lights up the car as the sunsets, too.
Stopwatch
Hamilton pushes his Mercedes up to third on the overall times with a 1m33.508s.
Norris has only been able to complete five laps so far this afternoon, to add to Piastri's 52 laps from this morning, which will be a big worry given how badly a similar issue hurt the team's progress last year.
There's a lot of work going on down at McLaren. Plenty of tape and heat guns being applied to the wheel brows and front wheels area, but it doesn't look like a brake issue, which is what the team suffered with last year here.
Stopwatch
Alonso is making himself comfortable in the tightly-packaged Aston now, which is one of the better looking cars on the 2023 grid in our humble opinion. If it looks fast, it often is fast too, and Alonso underlines that by going fifth with a 1m33.764s
The shadows are starting to grow longer across the track as the clock hits 5pm local time. As we've grown long accustomed to, the track action will be finished under the floodlights, with 2h30m to go today.
It is worth noting that at the end of the start/finish straight there is a great big bump in the track which is unsettling all the cars. But that's purely the track surface rather than any car hopping phenomenon issues.
Leclerc has a bouncy and bumpy ride on the straights in the SF-23. If it is, whisper it quietly, porpoising, it'll be a worry for Ferrari but it doesn't look as physical as last year.
Photo
Sir Jackie Stewart fuels rumours of a Tyrrell team comeback. Heard it here first.
Sir Jackie Stewart with Crown Prince of Bahrain Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Stopwatch
Alonso's first proper timed lap puts him 14th with a 1m35.255s. How he gets on at Aston Martin will be one of the fascinating subplots of the season ahead.
Alonso is back on track after almost a full hour in the Aston Martin garage, so he's got some time to try to make up over the final 2h45m of the day.
Stopwatch
Hamilton runs wide but still puts a lap in good enough for fifth and ahead of his team-mate Russell's best effort from this morning. Meanwhile Verstappen clocks up his century of laps.
Stopwatch
Leclerc moves up to sixth place overall with a 1m34.352s on his 19th lap of his afternoon session. After Sainz's strong showing this morning, it has been a positive day for Ferrari so far.
Bottas hacks away at his steering wheel trying to get his Alfa Romeo in check going into Turn 10 which rather ruins his lap.
Verstappen briefly lights up the timing screen with purple fastest mini sectors, running on the C3 tyres, but just misses out by a tenth on improving his own leading lap time.
Stopwatch
Bottas is the latest improver, a 1m35.206s, pushes him up to 12th place on today's times. Further back Sargeant also makes gains, a 1m36.556s, to move up to 15th.
Magnussen runs it wide through the final corner which means he hops his Haas over the kerbs, with Leclerc watching closely from behind in the Ferrari, but no harm done.
Stopwatch
Hamilton makes a small improvement with a 1m35.958s before pitting to leave Leclerc all alone on the track.
Verstappen, the only driver doing the full day of running, is fast approaching his century of laps completed, as he ticks over to 93. He's giving Harry Brook a run for his money for his strike rate.
Breaking news
News from the paddock: Mercedes buoyed by ‘no bouncing’ from new W14 F1 car - Full story: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mercedes-buoyed-by-no-bouncing-from-new-w14-f1-car/10435461/
F1 car mirrors have been made bigger for 2023 as part of the minor rules tweaks, but Ocon's have some gaffer tape on to keep them together, which spoils the blue and pink Alpine livery somewhat.
Breaking news
Sargeant is into the thick of his first running as a full-time F1 driver, and he'll have plenty of focus on him this year as the newest US hope for success. Read more about him here: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-f1s-missing-piece-wont-play-on-his-nationality-for-success/10435087/
Thanks very much Stephen. I've cleaned the flow-vis paint off my laptop and ready for the afternoon programme.
As Magnussen overshoots at Turn 1 amid some more possible braking difficulties, it's time for a changeover on commentary duties as we welcome back Haydn Cobb for his second stint of the day.
Verstappen is now getting close to his morning best and set some purple mini-sectors as he puts in a 1m33.237s time, a quarter of a second down on his earlier benchmark.
By: Autosport Staff
Published:
Lap:
