Verstappen tops opening day of in-season Barcelona F1 test

Max Verstappen set the fastest time of the opening day of Formula 1’s first in-season test of the year in Barcelona, racking up nearly 150 laps en route to the top of the timesheets.

Verstappen was handed the full day of testing for Red Bull, and was able to turn in a fastest time of 1m17.528s in the RB14 car to finish 0.034 seconds clear of Carlos Sainz Jr. at the front of the pack.

Verstappen overhauled Sainz in the last hour of the day, leaving the Renault driver to settle for second place after racking up more than 100 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Sebastian Vettel was one-tenth of a second further back in third, with morning pace-setter Romain Grosjean taking fourth after failing to improve his time through the afternoon. Both rivers completed more than 120 laps across the course of the day.

Nicholas Latifi ended his first F1 appearance with Force India in fifth thanks to a late flying lap on Hypersofts that put him one second down on Verstappen's time. 

Two days after his victory in Barcelona, Lewis Hamilton picked up yet more mileage in the Mercedes W09 car as he wound up sixth.

McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, with Antonio Giovinazzi taking eighth for Sauber. The Italian will switch over to Ferrari for tomorrow’s test running. Giovinazzi brought out the first and only red flag of the day with 15 minutes to go but did not appear to have suffered any damage to his C37 car. 

Williams youngster Oliver Rowland secured ninth spot in his first run-out since joining the team, while Lando Norris took 10th in the second McLaren that was on Pirelli tyre testing duties.

Oliver Turvey took over from Norris for the afternoon session, but wound up at the foot of the timesheets in P13. Norris’ Formula 2 rival, George Russell, was also helping the tyre supplier with development running, and ended the day 11th-fastest for Force India.

Sean Gelael’s first F1 test showing of the season was cut short by a suspected power unit issue for Toro Rosso, forcing the team to fit a new one. The F2 racer ended up 12th overall, managing only 50 laps through the course of the day, though he did make it out for the final minutes of the session. 

Testing resumes on Wednesday in Barcelona at 8am BST.

Additional reporting by Lewis Larkam