SAKHIR, Bahrain – Max Verstappen used a late fast lap to pace the opening day of Formula One testing Tuesday at the Bahrain Int’l Circuit.
Verstappen’s lap of 1:29.379, which came in the final five minutes of the session, put the Red Bull team on top of the test ahead of Ferrari’s young gun Mick Schumacher.
The son of seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, who was making his Formula One testing debut, ended the day second with a 1:29.976.
Tuesday’s test was slowed by weather, with rain falling late in the morning session and returning around midday to put a stop to testing for four hours. The track finally improved enough for teams to return to the track in the final 90 minutes of the day.
“It was a little bit wet, which is strange, but overall I think we had a good day,” said Verstappen. “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.”
Landon Norris was third fastest for McLaren, with Haas’ Romain Grosjean timing in fourth ahead of Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon in fifth.
Lewis Hamilton, who won the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, was sixth fastest for Mercedes.