Report of first day of 2021 F1 testing in Bahrain
Event: Wintertesting
Track: Bahrain International Circuit
Esteban Ocon (FRA) Alpine F1 Team A521 - sandstorm
Weather: dry 29.9-32.2°C
Tarmac: dry 35.8-31.3°C
Humidity :32.4%
Wind : 11.6 m/s W
Pressure: 1016.3 bar
Mar.12 - The 2021 season finally has kicked-off. The first day of three with testing in Bahrain is done. All cars and drivers drove as much laps as they could on the 5.412 km long Bahrain International Circuit, to try and get as much of data from their new cars they use to try and win this years Formula 1 championship.
The weather in Bahrain started of good with windy, dry and sunny conditions. The temperature reached 30 degrees Celsius. At the end of the morning a sandstrom was approaching the desert track.
The day started quite harsh for the e champions team Mercedes. The team discovered a gearbox problem on the very first lap that Valtteri Bottas got the brand new W12 car out on track. The team had to replace the complete gearbox which took quite a while. The silver arrows team could drive a couple of laps in the morning but only could get up to speed in the afternoon session when Lewis Hamilton was driving the car. The car wasn't able to show quick lap times yet and only drove 48 laps in total, which was the lowest amount of all teams.
Red Bull and Max Verstappen on the other hand had a perfect day. The Dutchman was able to complete a whopping 138 laps in the RB16B and drove the quickest lap time of the day that already is faster than the official racing lap record of 1:31.447 min. Apart from a spin in the morning session, the team had a trouble free and perfect day of testing.
Conditions got worse along the day as the sandstorm came down on the track. The storm caused very bad vision and grip levels. At one moment it looked like the cars were driving through water. Lewis Hamilton had to fight a lot of understeer in the Mercedes and even left the track a couple of times.
Below you can see the best lap times of each driver in combination with the used tyre compound and the total number of laps they drove today.
Quickest Lap Times 1st day of testing
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Lap Time | 1st Gap | Laps | Tyres |
| 1 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:30,674 | 139 | C3 | |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:30,889 | +0,215 | 45 | C3 |
| 3 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:31,146 | +0,472 | 129 | C4 |
| 4 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:31,782 | +1,108 | 46 | P |
| 5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:31,919 | +1,245 | 57 | C3 |
| 6 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1:31,945 | +1,271 | 68 | C3 |
| 7 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1:32,203 | +1,529 | 45 | C2 |
| 8 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:32,231 | +1,557 | 74 | C3 |
| 9 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1:32,727 | +2,053 | 37 | C2 |
| 10 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:32,912 | +2,238 | 42 | C2 |
| 11 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:33,242 | +2,568 | 59 | C3 |
| 12 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo | 1:33,320 | +2,646 | 63 | C3 |
| 13 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1:33,742 | +3,068 | 51 | P |
| 14 | 45 | Roy Nissany | Williams | 1:34,789 | +4,115 | 83 | C3 |
| 15 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 1:34,798 | +4,124 | 70 | C3 |
| 16 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1:36,127 | +5,453 | 15 | C2 |
| 17 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:36,850 | +6,176 | 6 | C2 |
Here you can see photos of today's 1st day of testing at Bahrain
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