Verstappen fastest, Aston Martin hit early trouble as F1 test begins

The reigning world champion continued where he left off in 2022 by topping the timesheets in the first on-track session of the year as pre-season testing got underway at Sakhir. 

After trading fastest laps with Carlos Sainz for much of the morning, Verstappen produced the benchmark time of a 1m32.959s in the final hour of running to put his brand-new RB19 on top at the lunch break. 

Verstappen, who is aiming to win his third world title on the bounce in 2023, finished 0.294s clear of Sainz’s Ferrari. 

Alex Albon was 0.712s adrift of Verstappen in third for Williams, ahead of the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu and George Russell, who was fifth in Mercedes’ modified W14. 

While most teams enjoyed a smooth start to testing, Aston Martin hit early trouble when Felipe Drugovich - standing in for the injured Lance Stroll - caused the first red flag when his AMR23 broke down with an electrical fault on its opening lap. 

After being stuck in the garage for more than an hour, Drugovich was able to rejoin the action and ended up seventh-fastest, one place behind F1 returnee Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas. 

Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri, new Alpine signing Pierre Gasly and rookie Oscar Piastri rounded out the rest of the top 10 runners. 

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton will get his first proper taste of the W14 when he takes over from Russell in the afternoon, while Fernando Alonso will be in action for Aston Martin.