Haas’ Romain Grosjean bounced back from his Spanish Grand Prix crash to lead the morning session of the first day of Formula 1 in-season testing.
Formula 1 teams have stayed on at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for two days of running, with all 10 squads in attendance, and a mixture of experienced and young drivers in the cockpit.
Grosjean, who trigged a multi-car pile-up at the start of Sunday’s race, posted a time of 1:18.449 on Pirelli’s Hypersoft tyres to take top spot in a four-hour session in warm and sunny conditions, which ran green throughout.
Spanish Grand Prix victor Lewis Hamilton trialled a modified rain-light system on the rear of his Mercedes W09 as he wound up second, 0.094s behind Grosjean.
Max Verstappen returned to the Red Bull RB14 off the back of his podium finish and placed third, ahead of regular Renault driver Carlos Sainz Jr.
Stoffel Vandoorne completed the least running – racking up only 31 laps – after spending much of the first half of the session in the garage, but wound up fifth.
Force India tester Nicholas Latifi got his first taste of the VJM11 and placed sixth, in front of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel – the most productive driver, amassing 78 laps.
Oliver Rowland placed eighth for Williams, in front of current F2 points leader Lando Norris, the younger Briton conducting test duties in a second McLaren on behalf of Pirelli.
Ferrari reserve Antonio Giovinazzi jumped into the Sauber C37 for the first time and finished 10th, in front of Mercedes-backed George Russell, who piloted a second Force India VJM11, as part of Pirelli’s run plan.
Sean Gelael finished at the foot of the 12-driver line-up for Toro Rosso, his best time 3.4s behind pacesetter Grosjean.
Testing will resume at 14:00 local time for another four-hour session.
