Sebastian Vettel comfortably led the first morning of testing for the 2019 F1 season at the Circuit de Catalunya in his new Ferrari.
In a productive start to the eight-day test, Vettel also covered the most laps of any driver – six more than a race distance at the home of the Circuit de Catalunya. His best time of 1’18.161 is already within one second of the team’s benchmark time from testing last year.The new Racing Point chassis ran well out of the box for Sergio Perez, who set the second-quickest time of the morning. Fellow Mercedes user Valtteri Bottas was third-quickest in the factory car.
Kimi Raikkonen had the unfortunate distinction of causing the first red flag of testing just five minutes after the session began. He spun his Alfa Romeo into a gravel trap at turn five and had to be recovered, though the stoppage caused minimal disruption to the team’s programme and he went into the lunch break fourth fastest.
McLarne had the distinction of being the first team on-track in 2019, Carlos Sainz Jnr leading Bottas out when the lights went green. He set the sixth-fastest time behind Max Verstappen, who made a productive start in his new Honda-powered Red Bull.
The only other red flag of the morning was caused by Romain Grosjean, whose Haas came to a stop before the chicane. The team blamed a fuel pressure problem.
Williams is the only one of the 10 F1 teams not participating in today’s test. The team’s new FW42 has not arrived at the circuit yet and is not expected to until the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo are due to take over from their team mates when the test resumes this afternoon.
| Pos. | Car number | Driver | Team | Model | Best time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | SF90 | 1’18.161 | 72 | |
| 2 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | RP19 | 1’19.944 | 1.783 | 20 |
| 3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | W10 | 1’20.127 | 1.966 | 69 |
| 4 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | C38 | 1’20.160 | 1.999 | 46 |
| 5 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | RB15 | 1’20.174 | 2.013 | 52 |
| 6 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | MCL34 | 1’20.430 | 2.269 | 56 |
| 7 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | RS19 | 1’20.980 | 2.819 | 65 |
| 8 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | VF-19 | 1’21.500 | 3.339 | 18 |
| 9 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | STR14 | 1’21.732 | 3.571 | 35 |
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georgeboole (@)
18th February 2019, 12:55
A McLaren doing more laps than the Red Bull. Now thats new
kpcart
18th February 2019, 13:02
They swapped engine makers
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
18th February 2019, 13:02
I really hope two of the major problems of this site will be addressed sooner or later (tires choices and commenting system). Anyway, Vettel and Bottas were on different compounds, for what it matters.
Vettel, Perez, Verstappen, Kvyat on C3, all the others on C2. C2 is harder than C3.
https://twitter.com/pirellisport/status/1097469872131444737/
socksolid (@socksolid)
18th February 2019, 15:29
Pirelli just insists making the tire naming system to be difficult. Just call the tires soft, medium hard and with 5 compounds call them SS, S, M, H, HH. C2 and C3? So simple I don’t need to explain anything. C as in compound? :facepalm:
falken (@falken)
18th February 2019, 13:04
“McLarne”? Spell checker must be at test :-)
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
18th February 2019, 13:10
I’m liking the “aircraft wings” above the air intakes on the Red Bull
Joao (@johnmilk)
18th February 2019, 13:16
Is it me, or the Ferrari is orange?
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
18th February 2019, 13:22
That’s what happen if you want to reduce two quarts of clear coat paint weight.
kpcart
18th February 2019, 14:01
No, not even close to orange.
Joao (@johnmilk)
18th February 2019, 15:02
should I blame the F1 app?
Mach1 (@mach1)
18th February 2019, 15:30
@johnmilk I thought it looks orange too. I kept nearly mistaking it for a McLaren when the sun glinted off it….
Andi
18th February 2019, 15:30
It does look somewhere between red and orange on Sky tv. More orangey than usual. A noticable orange tendency.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
18th February 2019, 15:48
@johnmilk @mach1 – yeah, its a weird shade, sort of like brick red due to that orangey shade. Definitely not the red of former Ferrari F1 cars, let alone Ferrari sports cars.
I like the idea of a matte paint, but not a fan of how the shade looks.
Bomarcuda (@bomarcuda)
18th February 2019, 18:47
Looks a bit orangish to me, too.
Joao (@johnmilk)
18th February 2019, 23:26
Well, I actually thought that it would be from where I was watching. I tried in other devices but it still looks orange to me and it appears that some of you have the same impression. I wonder if it is something relevant that they might address, perhaps using a darker shade of red?!
lunaslide (@lunaslide)
18th February 2019, 13:20
Excellent lap total for Renault. None of the cars look particularly unstable or troublesome. Looks like lots of strength in the mid field. Alfa might be a real surprise this year.
faulty (@faulty)
18th February 2019, 14:24
“Fellow Mercedes user Valtteri Bottas […]”
Ouch! @keithcollantine, that was a hard swipe.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
18th February 2019, 14:35
Congratulations to Ferrari and Vettel for the championship. They will dominate the season and win all the races by lapping the rest of the field.
Too early for stupid predictions? :P
Balue (@balue)
18th February 2019, 18:16
C’mon, you know how it is every year. Everyone will say now it’s just meaningless testing, and then everyone will say how the picture was clear in testing.
BlackJackFan
19th February 2019, 3:54
No… this is the ideal time for stupid predictions… lmao
Jere (@jerejj)
18th February 2019, 14:42
Two seconds off last season’s pole time, and a second off the 2018 pre-season testing fastest time. Not too bad this early into testing with these cars.
rpiian (@rpiian)
18th February 2019, 14:50
Nice Oppo-lock shot!