SAKHIR, Bahrain — Pierre Gasly topped the speed charts on the opening day of Formula 1’s official pre-season test session at Bahrain Int’l Circuit.
Gasly drove his AlphaTauri endry to a best lap of one minute and 39.902 seconds.
“It’s good to be finishing the day in P1. But we’re always asked at tests how we’re doing and I think we’ve got to focus mainly on ourselves and our performance, not at the timing screens as, at the moment, it doesn’t mean much until we get to qualified next week,” Gasly said. “Of course, it’s always nice to be top of the rankings, but at the end of the day I know we’ve got some stuff to work on, so we can get more out of the car. Overall, it’s been a good day. There are lots of positives with this car but as a racing driver we always focus on the negatives, so we’ll be using the next two days of testing to really get to grips with this car and work to feel more comfortable in it.”
Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were second and third on the scoring chart, while Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll was fourth. Alexander Albon was fifth for Williams.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was 11th for Mercedes.