BARCELONA, Spain – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the fastest man in town during the opening day of in-season Formula One testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Tuesday.
Verstappen topped the time sheets with a lap of 1:17.528 around the 4.655-kilometer, 16 turn circuit, fresh off of his third-place finish in the Spanish Grand Prix, which marked Red Bull’s 150th podium finish in F-1 competition.
The Dutchman completed 148 laps during Tuesday’s test session, second only to four-time and defending F-1 champion Lewis Hamilton, who turned a field-high 151 laps on Tuesday.
“Today was about gaining even more understanding of the car and tires, and we completed more than the program we set out (to do), so it was very good,” said Verstappen, who jumped to the head of the pack after lunch on Pirelli’s supersoft compound. “We did a lot of laps today … and I think if it was day one of winter testing I’d feel it, but it was no problem today and physically everything was fine. That’s my test over now, and the next stop for me is Zandvoort this coming Sunday, where Daniel, myself and David Coulthard will be doing some show car runs. I hope we can give all the fans there a good show.”
“We had a really productive session today and while it was probably a pretty long day for Max … and for him not the most exciting, it was a really good day for the engineers, as we got through the whole program we set out (to accomplish) for the day,” added Red Bull Racing Senior Projects Engineer Jeff Calam. “Today was mostly divided into understanding the tires more, with the upcoming races in mind and with testing development parts. Everything went according to plan, we got a lot of data … and we got in a lot of laps and a decent time. All in all, we’re very happy.”
Jake Dennis, a simulator development driver with Red Bull Racing, will take over from Verstappen in testing on Wednesday.
Renault’s Carlos Sainz was second-fastest in opening day testing, just .034 of a second adrift of Verstappen’s leading time, while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third-quick overall.
Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean and Force India’s Nicholas Latifi completed the top five.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was a distant sixth, more than a second off the pace, ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, Sauber’s Antonio Giovinazzi, Williams’ Oliver Rowland and the sister McLaren of Lando Norris.
“It was a good day and a relatively interesting test; I’m glad we did it,” said Hamilton. “We got through a large program and did 151 laps, which is a good sign of reliability. I’m looking forward to Monaco; hopefully we can take some of what we’ve learned onto there.”
