F1 testing ahead of the 2024 season is finally here with three days of running at the☂ Bahrain international Circuit.
It's the first time🎶 we will get to see all 10 🌺teams run their new challengers in anger as they prepare for the new campaign.
That's a wrap on the opening day of pre-season testing in Bahrain. Have we just had a glimpse of what 🀅to expect from this coming se🍬ason?
We will continue our live cov🐓erage of testing tomorrow morning from 6:30am, with the action getting underway at 7am UK time.
The cheq꧂uered flag is waved and that concludes the opening day of pre-season testing.
Day🌺 one belongs to reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who was a full second clear of the pack.
Just 15 mi🧜﷽nutes of running on the opening day of testing remain. Will anybody strap on a set of soft tyres for some late performance runs?
Verstappen has found more time on his latest run - still on the C3 compounౠd.&🃏nbsp;
It's a 1m31.344s for the reigning world champion, which puts him 1.140s clear of th♏e field...
Worth remembering these are the best conditions of the🌠 day.
Sargeant is yet to emerge from the Williams garage after pitting with a suspected drives✱haft issue.
The American had ꦐthe most dramatic moment of the day an hour or so ago when he suffered a huge spin at Turn 9 and ended up taking a trip through the gravel.
With little ov🐠er 30 mi𒁏nutes remaining, will Williams manage to get him back out again today?
Norris locks up big time heading into Turn 9, but the McLaren driver scoops up his car and maওnages to just about keep it under control and on track, avoiding further drama.
Verstappen bri🔴efly follows Russell on track before launching one down the inside of the Mercedes driver into Turn 13.
We are heading into the final hour of running on the first day of testing in 20🃏24.
Will we get to see any perfor🎃mance runs towards the end 🌱of the day?
Verꦡstappen has gone even quicker by posting a 1m31.662s o𒊎n the C3 compound.
The Dutchman ha💫s also surpassed a century of la🍎ps for the day.
McLaren for the title? Well it'🧔s early days but Norr▨is has taken to the top with a 1m32.484s, 0.084s ahead of Verstappen.
Verstappen still✱ leads the way on a 1m32.548s, less thaꦿn a tenth ahead of Sainz who has slotted into second-fastest.
Norris, Leclerc, ♊Alonso🅷, Piastri, Russell, Tsunoda, Zhou and Bottas complete the top 10.
Expect times to keep on getting quicker as the track gr🤪ips up and the temperatures start to co🎉me down in Bahrain.
The sessi𝕴on will finish under the floodlights - so keep an eye out for more performance runs at the end of the day.
Toto Wolff has been speaking to th༺e med🥂ia in Bahrain
You can read what he said here...
H🙈ere's Zhou Guanyu on track for the fir🎉st time today, sporting a splash of flow-vis paint on the side of his Sauber.
After taking over from teammate Leclerc, Sainz is on the move and ꩵhas slotted intoღ fourth overall.
Th𝐆e Spaniar🧸d is currently 0.838s off Verstappen's benchmark from earlier.
Hulkenberg ꧂is the only other driv🎉er out on track currently.
Anthony Davidson told Sky: "Aston Martin looked pretty nice at Turn One. Fernando Alonso was able to hook it up well, get good rotation into the car and then have a steady rear end when it ဣaccelerated through the exit
"The Red Bull at ⛄that time seemed to suffer a bit of understeer mid-cor𓆉ner of Turn One but then had really good rear stability through Turn Two as you pick up the speed. So two different characteristics from that car in the space of two corners."
Just three laps comp🏅leted by George Russell before he goes back into the pits.
Carlos Sainz and Max Ve♓🥀rstappen the only drivers on track currently.
"Morninꦅg done, lots of laps. We did all the tests that we wanted to do. That's goo🌱d.
"Now we ana𒁏lyse the data as much as possible to see if it correlates to what we ex🍸pected.
"Then, we work from there."
We know how im💜portant mileage is in testing, and it is Aston Martin who have racked up the most laps of anyone so far tod𝔍ay, with Fernando Alonso logging 77 this morning.
"It was good," ꦓsaid team principal Mike Krack. "We had ൲a promotional event at Silverstone last week and here is a different track, different conditions. But he was happy with how it went."
Krack also revealed that 💛Aston Martin will b🧸e bringing new parts to their AM24 on each day of the test in Bahrain.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz putting his🌺 first laps together now.
Max Verstappen
George Russell
Carlos Sainz
Lando Norris
Lance Stroll
Pierre Gasly
Logan Sargeant
Zhou Guanyu
Nico Hulkenberg
Daniel Ricciardo
