#F1 Pre-Season Test Day 1: @LandoNorris quickest for @McLarenF1.

Norris test – McLaren’s Lando Norris was fastest on the opening day of F1 pre-season testing at Barcelona, beating the morning benchmark set by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Wednesday saw the proper running of the new 2022 Formula 1 cars for the first time together, built under the new raft of rules and regulations designed for closer and competitive racing.

Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN and Uralkali Haas F1 Team unveiled their respective challengers to the world in the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya pit-lane and Oracle Red Bull Racing’s RB18 broke cover also.

Leclerc’s morning time-topper of a 1:20.165 was out-done by Norris, who improved to a 1:19.958 by end of the first day and finished with 103 laps in total.

This demoted Leclerc down to second and 0.597 seconds behind the Briton, with his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz third as the Scuderia racked up a combined total of 153 laps in mileage.

Mercedes’ George Russell finished the day in fourth, whilst his team-mate Lewis Hamilton piloted the new F1 W13 in the afternoon to complete the top five as both Silver Arrows drivers completed 127 laps of mileage together.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel fell from P4 in the morning running to sixth on the time-sheets overall before team-mate Lance Stroll (13th) took the duties in the AMR22 in the afternoon with both drivers completing a total of 119 laps in mileage for the Silverstone-based outfit.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda enjoyed a full day in the AT03, racking up 121 laps of mileage to end the day seventh in the classification in-front of BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso who was eighth.

Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen also enjoyed a full day in his new office, the RB18, taking ninth overall, but completed the highest number of laps – 147 – a brief moment running off-track in the morning the only down-part of his day.

Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top ten, with the Finn completing 23 tours as the Hinwil-based squad suffered a stuttering start to proceedings – with reserve driver Robert Kubica running only nine laps to wound up 16th.

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon was the quickest of the Grove-based squad’s pairing, with team-mate Nicholas Latifi in 14th.

Uralkali Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher was also the fastest of the Kannapolis-Banbury outfit’s duo, taking 12th on the time-sheets after suffering floor damage to the Ferrari-powered VF-22 affecting his afternoon running – whilst team-mate Nikita Mazepin came 15th in the order, piloting the VF-22 in the morning.

Five drivers – Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Zhou Guanyu, BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez – are yet to get behind the wheel, with plenty of running still to come over the next two days.

2022 Formula 1 Pre-Season Test, Day One Classification

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