F1 2025 testing day one ends with McLaren on top

McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris was quickest on the opening day of the 2025 three-day pre-season test in Bahrain.

At a cooler, windier Sakhir circuit than F1 is normally used to - and with spots of rain in the air through much of the afternoon - F1's new fleet of 2025-spec cars coped better than the surrounding facilities.

Teams by and large ran reliably and consistently, and with no hints of any on-track stoppages, but a late-day power outage, 'caused by an external substation failure" according to F1, suspended running - and the red flag remained out for over an hour as power to the circuit was restored gradually.

Get our first trackside insights early and direct from testing now in The Race Members' Club on Patreon - join now for 90% off your first month

Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli had gone fastest in the morning session before the midday break, but after the resumption of proceedings he, having handed the car over to George Russell, was already shuffled down to fifth (which eventually turned into seventh) by the time the electrical fault interrupted the session.

The lost hour was made up for as the running was extended by an hour past the original finish time.

Not long after the green flags flew again, Norris lifted defending champions McLaren into the top spot with a 1m30.430s on the medium (C3 compound) tyre.

The vast majority of the day's best times were set on that tyre. It's the compound the teams have all requested the most of, and it usually serves as the softest available option in the Bahrain Grand Prix race weekend range selected by tyre supplier Pirelli.

Though well short of the peak laptimes these cars should be capable of at this track, Norris' effort was nine tenths better than eventual 2024 champion Max Verstappen's day-topping laptime from the corresponding day of last year's test.

Russell in the Mercedes - which he pointed out was particularly fond of cooler conditions last year so could be being flattered a bit here - and Verstappen in the Red Bull completed the top three.

The Red Bull RB21 - most notable visually in just how similar to is to last year's RB20 - looked fast but nervy through the day, with a spin for Liam Lawson coming through Turn 2 in the morning perhaps the biggest on-track incident of note.

The only other contender for that title, amid various lock-ups and minor excursions into the run-off, was a spin for Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar.

Ferrari was the fourth-fastest of F1's 'big four' teams, albeit notably unlike the three drivers ahead of him in the classification Charles Leclerc had set his and the team's best time (just under a second up on what new team-mate Lewis Hamilton had set in the morning) before the power outage.

Former team-mate Carlos Sainz, now at Williams, was within a tenth of the Ferrari in what was surely a hugely encouraging first full day for the Williams FW47.

The only team that ended up relatively short on mileage was Aston Martin with its new AMR25, in which neither Fernando Alonso nor Lance Stroll crossed the 50-lap mark - the only two drivers in the field (in which every single team split running between its two drivers in the morning and afternoon session) not to do so. They were 15th and 16th respectively.

Meanwhile Sauber's best time - set by rookie Gabriel Bortoleto - was a late improvement and put him in 12th.

Haas's best laptimes were even more irrelevant than they normally are in testing. Just like a year ago, the American team focussed fully on heavy-fuel race pace work - with Esteban Ocon topping the day's mileage rankings.

Wednesday results

1 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.430s
2 Russell (Mercedes) +0.157s
3 Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.244s
4 Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.448s
5 Sainz (Williams) +0.525s
6 Gasly (Alpine) +0.923s
7 Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.998s
8 Lawson (Red Bull) +1.130s
9 Albon (Williams) +1.143s
10 Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) +1.180s
11 Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +1.201s
12 Bortoleto (Sauber) +1.260s
13 Hamilton (Ferrari) +1.404s
14 Doohan (Alpine) +1.411s
15 Alonso (Aston Martin) +1.444s
16 Stroll (Aston Martin) +1.519s
17 Piastri (McLaren) +1.654s
18 Hulkenberg (Sauber) +1.739s
19 Ocon (Haas) +3.170s
20 Bearman (Haas) +5.092s