Alfa Romeo: A couple of issues limited our running

Inexplicably the team chose to run Robert Kubica first thing for the first dozen laps or so of which nine were timed, before handing the Alfa Romeo C42 to Bottas.

But not before teething problems with the new car kept it in the garage while their rivals (Haas excluded) pumped in lap after lap.

The use of Kubica, perhaps stipulated by title sponsors Orlen, was strange considering that both Alfa Romeo drivers are new to the team and need valuable seat time.

Thus Kubica took the new C42 out for its first laps in the morning when problems struck and he only got nine timed laps during his stint, before Bottas took over the cockpit in the afternoon, going on to complete a meagre 23 laps with a best time of 1:22.572s good for tenth on the timesheets.

Bottas said of his first Alfa Romeo F1 experience: "It’s always nice to get back behind the wheel after the winter break, especially with a new car, a new team and a new generation of F1 cars. I did enjoy my time in the car, even though we had some issues that turned out to be pretty costly in terms of time lost.

"The important thing, however, is that we were able to understand them completely and we know how to fix them: we may have run out of time to do that today, but we still got some running under our belt and we know how to progress.

"Now I hope we can get two good days tomorrow and Friday to catch up on the time we lost today and complete our programme for the test. My first impression of the car is positive, so far I did not feel massive differences between the old-generation cars and the new ones, definitely not night and day.

"Of course, one needs to adjust the driving a little bit, but nothing too drastic: still, we have a lot of learning to do and we’re keen to get back to work on track," added Bottas

The Pole gave feedback on his stint in the car: "It wasn’t the best of mornings as we had a couple of issues that limited our running. The guys did a good job to solve them and it’s nice to see the spirit with which the team faced them, but in the end, we lost a big chunk of time.

"The little running I did feels like an appetiser, but obviously I wanted more! That’s racing, though, the important thing is that we can recover some ground tomorrow and continue discovering our new baby.

"The first impressions of the car are positive, but there’s so much more we need to find out," added Kubica.

Bottas will be back in the car Thursday morning, with the only rookie of 2022, Zhou Guanyu at the wheel of the Alfa Romeo C42 after lunch.