After the first four hours of pre-season running in Bahrain, teenage rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the Briton’s Mercedes substitute, topped.
the morning pace, and Lewis Hamilton completed 70 laps on his first full morning in Ferrari’s 2025 vehicle.
Hamilton was first up for Ferrari on the first morning of the three-day test to receive his first real taste of his new team’s latest vehicle after briefly piloting the new SF-25 in a shakedown with Charles Leclerc at Fiorano last week.
During a hectic morning of sprinting across the field in very cold Bahraini conditions, Hamilton finished the Bahrain race with ease, completing 57 laps in stints of varying lengths.
Despite a few wide, brief off-track moments that kicked up gravel at Turn Four, Hamilton’s morning seemed to go by without any significant incidents. At 12 p.m. UK time, Leclerc takes over the car in the afternoon. The race is broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 and is available for free on the Sky Sports app.
Because teams use different tires, fuel, engine settings, and aerodynamic programs, lap times during testing are always notoriously misleading.
This is especially true on the first day of racing, when teams prioritize checks and early setup adjustments over performance chasing.
Nevertheless, Mercedes will be happy with its new rookie, Antonelli, who is 18 years old, after he completed 78 laps and recorded the fastest time of 1:31.428. The one noteworthy mistake made by the Italian was a lock-up late in the session.
Max Verstappen’s new teammate ruined his copybook with the year’s first spin after losing control of the RB21 through Turn Three, but Liam Lawson finished second in the new Red Bull after 58 laps.
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