Max fastest at the end of the first Bahrain test day
Published on 02 April 2019 by Kees-Jan Koster
Max Verstappen ended the by rain plagued first Bahrain test day as fastest. The Dutchman, who finished forth in the Grand Prix two days earlier, did 62 laps on the 5.412 km long Bahrain International Circuit. He set 1:29.379 as the fastest time. Mick Schumacher ended his Formula 1 debut in P2, by setting 1:29.976 on the clocks in the Ferrari SF90.
“It was a little bit wet, which is strange, but overall I think we had a good day,” says Max afterwards. “We managed to get in a lot of laps to help us understand more about our performance over the race weekend, and I think we’ve already learned a lot, so that’s very positive.”
“We don’t get that many days to really understand the car, and during a race weekend it all goes by so quickly, so days like today are very helpful. We knew what didn’t work over the weekend in terms of rear-end grip so we tried to work on that and I think we learned a lot.”
As in the morning, the afternoon of the first test day in Bahrain is plagued by rain, so the teams stay inside for a long time. When there is only an hour to go, Lewis Hamilton on behalf of Mercedes comes out on track. The other teams follow quickly, so finally there is some action at the end of this test day.
Romain Grosjean leads most of the day, but at the end of the session faster times are set by Verstappen and Schumacher. Eventually it is the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver who sets the fastest time (1:29.379) and leaves Mick, the son of the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, behind.
The first and only red flag is caused by Lance Stroll. The Racing Point of the Canadian stops in the last sector with just a couple of minutes to go, causing the end of the test day. Tomorrow Max will hand over to Dan Ticktum, who will drive for Red Bull Racing. Besides him, several other test drivers come into action, Jack Aitken (Renault), Pietro Fittipaldi (Haas) and Nicholas Latifi (Williams). Schumacher will drive for Sauber and George Russell for Mercedes.
Results Bahrain first test day:
Driver Team Time Laps 1 Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:29.379 62 2 Schumacher Ferrari 1:29.976 56 3 Norris McLaren 1:30.800 22 4 Grosjean Haas F1 1:30.982 42 5 Albon Toro Rosso 1:31.089 71 6 Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.156 77 7 Ricciardo Renault 1:31.584 45 8 Stroll Racing Point 1:31.964 33 9 Sainz jr McLaren 1:32.059 32 10 Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing 1:32.067 53 11 Alonso McLaren 1:32.207 64 12 Fittipaldi Haas F1 1:32.708 20 13 Kubica Williams 1:33.290 19 14 Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:33.653 45 15 Russell Williams 1:33.682 27
