Sakhir: Mar 10 (IANS) AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly produced the fastest times on Day 1 of the official pre-season test here, finishing ahead of Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc topped the morning times but finished third overall after conditions cooled and grip improved after sunset. Gasly took advantage of the better conditions to set the fastest lap of Day 1 under the lights with a 1m33.902s effort. Sainz was second overall.
Although Lance Stroll brought out the first red flag of the day when his Aston Martin unraveled its aero rakes, the Canadian finished fourth with a flywheel in the afternoon, finishing ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon in P5, according to a report on formula 1. website .com.
Stroll and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso (12th) also enjoyed a duel with 25 minutes remaining in the day, their wheel-to-wheel brawl hopefully a sign of things to come for the Bahrain Grand Prix that opens the season.
Reports said McLaren’s relatively anonymous performance was improved by a late-flying effort from Lando Norris, who was sixth overall.
Valtteri Bottas took P7 at night for Alfa Romeo, more than 50 laps under his belt, after team-mate Zhou Guanyu (14th) was briefly interrupted for a pit lane stop in the morning.
Eighth-placed Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel completed 39 laps in the morning and finished ahead of George Russell (P9). Mercedes’ new recruit took the wheel of the radically redesigned W13 in the afternoon; his teammate Lewis Hamilton was 11th overall, having raced in the morning.