Norris tops first day of Bahrain test for McLaren

Oscar Piastri began proceedings for McLaren, cutting 54 laps of the Sakhir circuit before handing the reins over to Norris.

“A good first morning back in the car,” said Piastri.

“It all ran smoothly and I feel like I got a better handle of what the car’s doing and what it needs.

“The conditions are very different here compared to Barcelona, so it was good to get some running in a different environment.

“We’ll go through the data, see what we can pull out from it and how we can improve ahead of getting back on track.”

Norris collected 58 laps on his way to a session-best 1:34.669s in the MCL40.

“It was good to be back in the car today, we completed a lot of test items which gave us a lot of data to look over, as well as a better understanding of the car,” said Norris.

“Of course, being in Bahrain in the sun, the conditions are very different to Barcelona, very hot and quite windy, and that was interesting to see how differently the car behaves.

“Positive day, lots learned, and looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow.”

McLaren said the first focus of the test was to collect aerodynamic data, rather than chasing lap times or kilometres.

“A productive first day in Bahrain as we continue our early on-track learning and developments for the MCL40,” said McLaren chief designer Rob Marshall.

“We have approached this week by prioritising our learning and therefore chosen a deliberate run plan to optimise work that ultimately accelerates the development of our package.

“You can see from Oscar and Lando’s running that they have both completed heavy aerodynamic testing today in conditions that are very different to the ones we experienced in Barcelona last month. With this in mind, we have prioritised data gathering runs over out and out mileage on this first day of the test.

“Everyone is pushing in the same direction, and the drivers’ time invested in test items provides a solid foundation of learning, from which we can build on as we progress through pre-season testing.”

Verstappen completed a whopping 134 laps – the most of any driver – and ended the day just 0.129s off of last year’s champion.

“Looking at the day, it was all okay and we didn’t run into trouble, which was the most important thing, so I can now look to Friday for what else we can learn,” said Verstappen.

Charles Leclerc was third overall for Ferrari, more than half a second off of Norris. Haas driver Esteban Ocon was fourth, and was the only other driver to rack up more than 100 laps.

Piastri’s best effort from the morning put him fifth, ahead of George Russell (Mercedes), Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Nico Hulkenberg (Audi), and Alex Albon (Williams).

F1 newcomers Cadillac completed 107 laps between Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, nearly two Bahrain Grand Prix race distances.

“It’s good that we’re here,” said Bottas.

“We’re running the car, that is really step one, and we’re making some decent ground.

“We’re learning it each run, so that is important. We’ll still have many days ahead of us before Melbourne and we still have lots of work to do.

“But it’s exciting and it’s nice to see that we are progressing each day that we are on track with the car.

“It was so important to be at the Barcelona shakedown and here ready and running the car,” he added.

“If we would have missed any days, we would definitely be in trouble in Melbourne.

“I think the team has done so far an incredible job to be on time.”

The test was blighted by strong winds, which wreaked havoc on some parts of the circuit as drivers struggled to slow down under brakes.

That was in stark contrast to the Barcelona shakedown, where frigid temperatures made life tough for teams and drivers.

The first day of testing ran without much incident. Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi stopped at the final corner in the final hour, which brought out the red flag.

Isack Hadjar, Fernando Alonso, Ollie Bearman, and Liam Lawson did not test. Testing will continue on Thursday, February 12.

Results: Formula 1 Bahrain Pre-Season Test Day 1