Bahrain 2025 Test, Day-1 morning results: Lewis Hamilton completes 70 laps in his Ferrari testing debut
Today at 06:29 AM
Antonelli in the lead, then Lawson
F1 finally kicks off the 2025 season with the first four hours of testing in Bahrain. On a Sakhir circuit covered by clouds and with unusually cool temperatures for the Bahrain desert, the fastest in the morning of the first day of winter testing was Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who placed his Mercedes at the top of the session in the final hour. The young Italian talent, driving a W16 that seemed quite well-balanced from the first laps on track, stopped the clock at 1:31.428, over a second faster than the best time set a year ago by Max Verstappen after the first four hours of work (1:32.548).
In second place is Liam Lawson on the Red Bull, also responsible for the first spin of the 2025 F1 season – without consequences, as he was able to continue a few moments later, albeit with flat-spotted tires. The New Zealander is 132 thousandths of a second behind Antonelli, in a leaderboard still dominated by great balance at the top: in less than two-tenths we also find Alex Albon's Williams and Yuki Tsunoda's Racing Bulls.
Hamilton-Ferrari, the big names of the Bahrain F1 tests
However, the most anticipated of all was obviously Lewis Hamilton, making his debut in F1 testing in Bahrain and, in general, in an official F1 session driving the Ferrari SF-25. The seven-time world champion tested with C3 tires, often working with a medium-high fuel load. Sir Lewis closed the morning with the fifth fastest time, four-tenths behind his successor at Mercedes. Despite the times, which are still of limited significance (and therefore less important at this stage), in his first outings on track, Ferrari's new car appeared a bit nervous and with a rather unstable rear end. In his Ferrari testing debut, the seven-time world champion completed a solid 70 laps.
With limited time to adapt to his new car, Hamilton’s main objective was to avoid any significant interruptions. This goal was met, and as a result, both the Brit and his team are likely to be pleased.
The others
The standings after these first four hours of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship see Jack Doohan in sixth place, with Fernando Alonso in seventh ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri. Nico Hulkenberg is ninth with Sauber, while Oliver Bearman is tenth and last in the morning times, over four seconds behind Antonelli: a clear sign that the young Ferrari Driver Academy talent focused on a different workload from the others, mainly concentrating on high fuel load testing. The F1 tests in Bahrain will resume in the afternoon, from 13:00 to 17:00 Italian time, and will be covered live, as always, by ScuderiaFans.com with minute-by-minute updates.
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