F1 2023: Max Verstappen tops the sector within the first testing session

The 2022 Method 1 season ended with Pink Bull’s Max Verstappen on the high of the desk.

The 2023 F1 season started the identical approach.

Verstappen led the sector in the course of the first session of pre-season testing on Thursday at Bahrain Worldwide Circuit, prematurely of the season’s first Grand Prix, the Bahrain Grand Prix slated for subsequent weekend. Verstappen’s greatest lap time of 1:32.959 simply edged out the time posted by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr.

Verstappen is slated to drive within the afternoon session for Pink Bull, whereas the opposite 9 groups will change their drivers for the second session of the day.

This was the primary time that the groups have been all on the monitor collectively prematurely of the 2023 F1 season, giving groups — and followers — an opportunity to see all of the groups in motion. And extra importantly, to see whether or not all of the laborious work from the low season would repay.

When the ten drivers took to the grid for the morning session, some groups had aero rakes on their vehicles, as a method of measuring the air circulate over components of the car. You possibly can see these aero rakes on each the Mercedes and the AlphaTauri on this beneath video, displaying every of the ten vehicles in the course of the morning testing session:

Right here is one other have a look at the aero rakes on Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri:

Right here is the total classification from the morning session, from F1.com: