Barcelona Test Day 1: Verstappen fastest

Verstappen, who finished third in the race on Sunday, set the best lap time of 1.17:528 using the Pirelli Hypersoft tyres and racked up 148 laps in the process.

Next up, fractionally slower, was Carlos Sainz in the Renault who set his best lap time in similar conditions to his former Toro Rosso teammate.

Sebastian Vettel was third quickest in his Ferrari, using the Pirelli Soft tyres for his best lap time during the course of the day.

Haas driver Romain Grosjean was quickest for most of the morning, before slipping down to fourth on the timing screens at the end of the day.

Fastest of the reserve drivers on duty was Nicolas Latifi in the Force India, finishing the day fifth fastest.

Spanish Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton was sixth fastest, with 151 laps on his chart - more than any other driver on the day.

Stoffel Vandoorne was seventh in the McLaren, ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi in the Sauber, Oliver Rowlands on duty for Williams and Sean Galeal tenth in the Toro Rosso.

Testing will continue on Wednesday, the final day before teams pack up and start heading to Monaco.

Nicholas Latifi: “I was really looking forward to my first outing, especially after the disappointment of missing out on pre-season testing [due to illness]. It was a very good first day on track with the team and I finally had the chance to put to practice a lot of the procedures and processes that I had learnt in the simulator. I am pleased with how the day went; we ran smoothly with no big dramas. We completed lots of laps and I couldn’t have asked for a better first day. I am glad I could help the team with their testing programme and I am looking forward to being back in the simulator with this new knowledge of how the car behaves on track.”

Tom McCullough, Chief Race Endineer: “It was a very solid performance by Nicholas on his first day in the car. Our programme included a series of aero test items with extra instrumentation on the car in the early part of the day, which allowed him to get up to speed with how we operate and with understanding the VJM11. Nicholas settled in well with the team from an operational point of view and was on top of the various switches and procedures straight away after the simulator work he did earlier in the season. We were able to get straight to the various test items and completed the main objectives. It was a good day and a great start to our on-track relationship with Nicholas.”

Romain Grosjean: “It’s been a very good day and a very productive day for the team. We’ve done a lot of mileage and we haven’t had any issues with the car. The circuit was a bit dirty, initially, in the morning. The grip was a bit low – it was fresh. It got better and we got some really decent running. We did some very good testing with the car. We’ve learned a lot about the different tires and setup work, which you don’t get to do on a race weekend. The feeling was super good, and I think it was important to get back on the horse after not being able to complete the grand prix on Sunday. So, feelings were good. Hopefully, they stay there for Monaco and the rest of the season. I’m very happy with the job that everyone’s done on the day. ”

Lewis Hamilton: "It was a good day and a relatively interesting test, I'm glad we did it. We got through a large programme and did 151 laps which is a good sign of reliability. I'm looking forward to Monaco; hopefully we can take some of the things we've learned onto there."

Andrew Shovlin: "We've had a very good day completing 151 laps with Lewis without any real issues on the car. We had a good baseline to work with from the test, so our focus has been further understanding the car and tyres. We had a comprehensive aero data collection programme which we got through whilst the track was cold first thing, then got stuck into proper running for the remainder of the day. It's difficult on a race weekend to complete proper tests due to the limited number of tyres, the constantly evolving track and the requirement to get the maximum speed out of the car. Here we were able to step through a large programme of setup items, so Lewis has been able to get a good feel for the effect of these changes and hopefully that will help us get the most out of the car at the upcoming races. We've got Valtteri in the car tomorrow and another very busy day planned."

Max Verstappen: “Today was about gaining even more understanding of the car and tyres and we completed more than the programme we set out, so it was very good. 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, and I hope we can give all the fans there a really good show.”

Jeff Calam, Senior Projects Engineer: “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 programme we’d set out for the day. Today was mostly divided into understanding the tyres more, with the upcoming races in mind, and testing development parts. Everything went according to plan, we got a lot of data and we’re very happy with progress. We got in a lot of laps and a decent time, so all in all we’re very happy. Tomorrow, Jake Dennis, who is a Simulator Development Driver with the team, will take over from Max and it represents a really good opportunity for him to experience the RB14 first hand.”

Stoffel Vandoorne: “Today’s programme had a bit of a slow start as we were checking and testing various things, but in general it’s been quite positive. We went through a lot of analysis of the new aero package and did a number of tests to understand it a bit better and get a read on exactly how it’s affecting the behaviour of the car. We also did a bit of tyre testing, which again helped us gather some more useful information for set-up. In the end, we did some good mileage, and I’m pretty happy with the learning from today. Tomorrow I’m driving the Pirelli car – a different programme entirely from today, but still a good opportunity for more time in the car.”

Sean Gelael: “It’s good to be back driving with Toro Rosso, they’re a great bunch of guys and it’s a nice car, obviously! Straight away I could notice the difference between last year’s car and the STR13, there’s much more grip! Today it has been a little bit unfortunate for us because of the issues we ran into, but I learned a lot and the team still has a lot of important data to analyse. It’s a shame that we couldn’t do more laps, but that’s racing and we hope tomorrow will be more productive.”

Jonathan Eddolls, Chief Race Engineer: “We came to this test with an extremely busy and extensive plan, with lots of items to sign off to try and improve our understanding of the car and performance going forward. We had Sean Gelael in the car, so it’s great to welcome him back for his first run in the STR13 and beginning his testing duties for us. The morning got off to a good start, we were doing some aero mapping work, some further tyre understanding, and a little bit of setup work. Unfortunately, towards the end of the morning we had a failure on an oil radiator which caused a very big oil leak, and as a precaution we decided to change the power unit. The mechanics did a great job in getting the car turned around and back on track. Since we had planned to complete performance runs in the afternoon, Sean wasn’t able to set a representative lap time. In the end, we only got out with 20 minutes to go, we had an installation lap before a red flag disrupted our run limiting us to two laps. It was quite disappointing that such a simple issue with a radiator effectively lost us half a day, so we didn’t get all of the running that we would have liked. Since we didn’t get all of the work done that we wanted today, we will need to go through the test plan tonight and look at all of the items to prioritise the most important ones for tomorrow.”

Masamitsu Motohashi, Honda F1 Deputy Technical Director: “Our programme for this two-day test involved assessing some new ideas on the PU side. Unfortunately, today’s track time was limited as we had to stop running in the early afternoon to change the PU. This was done as a precautionary measure, as we felt a chassis issue detected on the car may have damaged some elements of the PU. All the same, we got some useful data from the 50 laps completed. The Toro Rosso and Honda mechanics did a great job to allow us to get Sean back out on track towards the very end of the session and this meant we were able to check that everything is okay and set for what we hope will be a more productive day tomorrow.”

Dave Robson, Performance Projects – Principal Engineer: "It’s been a really good day of testing. Oliver’s got through in excess of 120 laps which, given this was achieved within a large number of very short runs, is a phenomenal number. The car has worked really well and we got through an awful lot of test items and we have a lot of data to go through tonight. For his first day testing with us, Oliver has done an absolutely superb job."

Oliver Rowland, Official Young Driver: "Today was really good. We completed a lot of laps and worked through our programme. It was nice to get my first proper run in an F1 car. In general, the team has learnt quite a bit so we are happy. I actually felt quite comfortable in the car and we got the times down pretty quickly. I didn’t drive as fast as I could as I couldn’t risk crashing, so I didn’t push it too much. This morning we went through quite a lot of stuff on new and old tyres so it was interesting to get a feel for everything. I would like to thank Williams for this opportunity which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, I hope my feedback helps the team move forwards."