Ricciardo and Verstappen quickest in F1’s first day of pre-season testing

The quick Daniel Ricciardo topped the timings in the morning with Max Verstappen fastest in the afternoon as F1 completed its first day of pre-season testing.

Morning session

In the first hour, Kimi Raikkonen was the quickest driver to set a lap time with the Iceman setting an early benchmark of 1:34.686 on the medium tyre.

Charles Leclerc followed behind in second with Pierre Gasly narrowly behind the Ferrari in third. Max Verstappen was fourth-fastest, nearly two-tenths slower, with Esteban Ocon one-tenth slower than the Dutchman in fifth.

Daniel Ricciardo jumped into the McLaren for the first part of testing as he put his car into sixth narrowly behind Ocon. Sebastian Vettel, in his new Aston Martin, was over a second slower than the Aussie in seventh.

Mick Schumacher was the final driver to set a timed lap and was nearly a second slower than his German compatriot with Valtteri Bottas and Roy Nissany only out of the pit-lane for installation laps.

The second hour was completed with the quick Ricciardo jumping into first place with a lap time of 1:32.203, over two seconds faster than the quickest time in the first hour set by Raikkonen.

Gasly was three-tenths slower than the McLaren in second with Verstappen four-hundredths slower than the Frenchman in third.

Leclerc was fourth ahead of his old teammate Vettel in fifth with Ocon in sixth and Raikkonen in seventh. Williams’ Development driver Nissany was over four seconds slower than Ricciardo’s fastest lap time in eighth with Schumacher nearly five seconds slower than the ‘Honey Badger’.

Bottas was still sat in the pits as the Mercedes crew worked on the car as a gearbox change was needed in order to get the Finn out on the track.

Ricciardo remained the fastest for the rest of the session with Gasly able to close up the gap to three-hundredths in second with Verstappen four-hundredths slower than his ex-Red Bull teammate.

Ocon jumped ahead of Leclerc with the pair fourth a fifth. Raikkonen jumped ahead of his old teammate Vettel with the Alfa Romeo in sixth and Aston Martin in seventh.

Nissany was 2.5 seconds slower than Ricciardo with the Development driver in eighth with Schumacher nearly four seconds slower than the McLaren of the Aussie in ninth. Bottas was finally able to get a timed lap and finished the morning slowest of the pack over 4.5 seconds slower than the quickest time of the morning session.

Afternoon

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Ricciardo remained at the top of the timing charts with his 1:32.203 lap time in the morning session as most drivers who stepped into the cars in the afternoon session were getting used to the wind and dusty track which was covered in grit and sand.

Gasly and Verstappen remained second and third with Ocon unable to beat his time he set in the morning session but remained fourth.

Leclerc, Raikkonen and Vettel all retained their positions with the trio in fifth, sixth and seventh. F1 new boy, Yuki Tsunoda stepped into the AlphaTauri car for the afternoon and was able to put his car eighth after the first hour of running.

Nissany slipped down to ninth with the Williams driver ahead of Haas’ afternoon driver Nikita Mazepin who was able to put his car into 10th.

Lando Norris was over three seconds than his McLaren teammate’s best time from the morning as the Englishmen was 11th after hour one. Schumacher slipped down to 12th with Ferrari man Carlos Sainz’s early lap time putting him into 13th.

Bottas dropped down to 14th with Antonio Giovinazzi’s early benchmark putting him 15th ahead of seven-time World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, who set the slowest lap time in the first hour. Lance Stroll did not appear out of the pit-lane until the second hour as the Canadian bided his time.

As the second hour hit, the Red Bull of Verstappen began the charge and took the quickest time yet with a 1:31.412 as Ricciardo dropped to second and Gasly into third.

Giovinazzi wrestled his Alfa Romeo car into fourth with Tsunoda also jumping a few places into fifth meaning Ocon slid down to sixth.

Sainz and Norris put their cars into seventh and eight pushing the trio of Leclerc, Raikkonen and Vettel down the order.

The Williams of Nissany also slid down to 12th with Hamilton moving up to 13th ahead of the Haas duo of Mazepin and Schumacher in 14th and 15th respectively.

Bottas had his morning cut short and did not put a quick enough lap time which saw him drop to second slowest after the second hour in the afternoon with Stroll only having a handful of laps and remaining bottom of the pile.

Verstappen stayed at the top into the third hour of the afternoon session as Ocon and Norris jumped into second and third with Giovinazzi into fourth ahead of Ricciardo and Gasly.

Tsunoda dropped down to seventh as Sainz, Hamilton and Leclerc completed the top 10. Raikkonen and Vettel dropped outside the top 10 to 11th and 12th with Nissany in 13th ahead of Mazepin in 14th, Schumacher in 15th, Bottas in 16th and Stroll plum last.

At the end of the afternoon session, Verstappen set a new fastest time of 1:30.674 with Norris moving up to second dropping the Alpine of Ocon to third.

Stroll made a late charge moving his Aston Martin into fourth as Sainz was also able to move his Ferrari car up the timing charts to fifth.

Giovinazzi finished sixth with Ricciardo and Gasly in seventh and eighth. Tsunoda and Hamilton rounded off the top 10 with the latter over two seconds slower than Verstappen’s fastest lap.

Leclerc was 11th at the end of the day as Raikkonen took 12th, Vettel in 13th, Nissany in 14th, Mazepin in 15th, Schumacher in 16th and the Mercedes of Bottas finished 17th and slowest of the pack.

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