Hamilton on top on first day in-season test Bahrain
Published on 18 April 2017 by Mike Motilall
Lewis Hamilton was the fastest man on track after the first day of in-season testing in Bahrain. The Brit clocked a 1:31.358 in his Mercedes, putting him over six tenths up on Antonio Giovinazzi, who was second. Driving in Ferrari colours today, he replaced Wehrlein who had been injured in Australia and China. Daniel Ricciardo came in third at the end of the day.
Although there was no official lunch break scheduled, most of the teams decided to break for lunch around midday. After that, it was business as usual again on the track in Bahrain. Apart from the fact that Lance Stroll has been replaced by Felipe Massa at Williams, there are no changes to the list of drivers.
The afternoon goes by without any particular incidents for most of the teams. Sean Gelael, driving for Toro Rosso, suffers some issues on the car just after noon, forcing him to park his car alongside the track for the second time in a row. However, the issue is solved pretty quickly and the Indonesian Formula 2-driver heads out on track with still some two hours left on the clocks.
Sadly, that is not the case at McLaren. After a bad race weekend, even today the English team is struggling. Due to a water leak in the ERS-system, Oliver Turvey is only able to lap the track twice. To save some time, the team decide to change the entire power unit. However, it takes them so much time to do this, that the Brit makes it back to the track with just only forty five minutes left on the clock. At the end of the day, he has only managed to lap the track seventeen times.
Marcus Erisson is Sauber’s most productive driver and does some hundred laps on the circuit. The top five is rounded up by Romain Grosjean and Felipe Massa.
Ricciardo is not able to better his time which was set in the early session and only manages to do some forty-five laps as well. Tomorrow, Max Verstappen’s team mate will hand over the RB13 to Pierre Gasly. He will take over for the final day of in-season testing in Bahrain. Only after the Hungarian Grand Prix will there be another in-season test again. That test will be the final two days of in-season testing on the agenda.
In-Season Test - Bahrain International Circuit - Tuesday 18 April 2017
RESULTS DAY 1 Pos. Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m31.358s 97 2 Antonio Giovinazzi Ferrari 1m31.984s 0.626s 93 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1m32.349s 0.991s 45 4 Romain Grosjean Haas 1m33.452s 1.094s 87 5 Felipe Massa Williams 1m32.509s 1.151s 56 6 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m33.624 2.266s 74 7 Lance Stroll Williams 1m33.729s 2.371s 35 8 Sean Gelael Toro Rosso 1m33.885s 2.527s 78 9 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m33.894s 2.536s 89 10 Alfonso Celis Jr Force India 1m33.939s 2.581s 70
