Hulkenberg and Force India on top in Bahrain

Nico Hulkenberg and Force India are on top as the first day of testing in Bahrain for the 2014 Formula 1 season has come to a close. His fastest lap came on the Pirelli soft compound and put him inside Sebastian Vettel’s fastest race lap in Bahrain last year.

Lewis Hamilton was at the top of the time sheets of this mornings’ session, whilst both the Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso cars failed to complete a single lap before the lunch break. Red Bull Racing tweeted early in the day that they were “still fitting some parts” which turned out to be new carbon fibre bodywork solutions, not helping their start to the second test after a miserable first test of the season in Spain.

Meanwhile team rivals Mercedes’ picked up where they left off in Spain, completing 41 laps over the course of the morning with Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel, posting a fastest lap time of 1:39.153 – 0.1 seconds quicker than the McLaren of rookie driver Kevin Magnussen.

The morning session was delayed by 30 minutes due to a lack of marshals at the track in Bahrain. When things did get going, Fernando Alonso exited the pit lane with a plume of smoke flooding from the engine, prompting the first red flag of the day just minutes into the morning session. The Ferrari did make it back to the pit garage on its own though and he was back on track just a while later, showing no major damage or recurring problem. Alonso would clock 30 laps before lunch time with a fifth fastest lap.

Adrian Sutil completed the highest number of laps in his Sauber before midday; 45 on his tally and 4 ahead of Hamilton’s Mercedes. Sutil also caused the second red flag of the day when he spun the car at Turn one. He did keep it out of the gravel though and free from damage.

Caterham was one of the Renault powered cars who actually had a good morning today. Robert Frijns completed 36 laps and a sixth fastest lap, though was over 5 seconds behind the pace set by Hamilton.

The first day is Bahrain also saw the first public showing of the Lotus E22. After skipping the first test in Spain, Romain Grosjean was able to run 7 laps this morning, but also over 5 seconds down on Hamilton’s pace.

However, it would be Nico Hulkenberg who would set the fastest time of the first days’ testing in Bahrain as Mercedes powered cars filled the top three of four spots on the timesheets as the chequered flag fell.

Completing 78 laps, Hulkenberg was the only driver able to set a lap time in the 1m36’s. Fernando Alonso went second fastest this afternoon whilst the mornings’ fastest driver, Lewis Hamilton, would settle for third overall with 74 laps for the days’ run.

Kevin Magnussen finished fourth on the time sheets, but second in total laps completed with 81 to his name. He was topped by Adrian Sutil who finished the first day of testing with 82 laps completed but only sixth fastest time over three seconds off the pace of the front runners.

Spending the entire morning in the garage to complete upgrades to the car, Red Bull finally got three time World Champion Sebastian Vettel out on the track for a few afternoon runs. After setting the fifth fastest time though, Vettel broke down on track, causing the final red flag of the day and a lengthy delay to the session. Red Bull would not make it back out on track again, putting the total number of laps for the day at just 14.

Toro Rosso’s Renault powered car struggles also continue. Daniil Kvyat suffered from an oil leak as just one of many problems on the car, and would get just 5 laps in whilst being over seven seconds off the pace.

Massa’s Williams FW36 was plagued with a fuel leak problem today and the team would complete just 5 laps with no set lap time; a disappointing day for the team after such a strong start to the season in Jerez. Marrusia’s Jules Bianchi completed just three laps today, the fewest of all runners as the team encountered an ‘IT problem’ with the MR03.

Day 2 of the Formula 1 pre-season test in Bahrain commences tomorrow, February 20th 2014.