Kimi Antonelli led the way at the lunch hour as the F1 drivers began to get to grips with their new 2025 challengers at the Bahrain circuit, and had a first look at their rivals in action.

After two weeks of launches, shakedowns and filming days, Formula 1’s pre-season officially got underway at the Bahrain International Circuit on Wednesday morning for Day One of a three-day test.

Kimi Antonelli sets the pace on Wednesday morning

In chilly conditions that had Oliver Bearman telling Haas he was “cold” in the cockpit of the VF-25, Kimi Antonelli was the first driver out on track as he queued at the end of the pit lane ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Aero rakes dominated the cars’ aesthetics in the opening runs, every one of the cars running the Kiel probe rakes to some degree with Lewis Hamilton‘s Ferrari SF-25 looking like it drove through a farm gate.

Liam Lawson early the early pace in the Red Bull RB21, a 1:35.806, but after a short break during which Ferrari removed the rakes from his car, Hamilton took over at the front to finish the opening hour up in P1.

Lewis Hamilton has climbed back out of the Ferrari and headed back to the paddock. Lots of work going on at Ferrari. #F1 #F1testing pic.twitter.com/hv9nglC8Bj

— Thomas Maher (@thomasmaheronf1) February 26, 2025

His 1:32.621 put him 0.2s up on Alex Albon with Fernando Alonso third.

Lawson regained top spot ahead of Alonso while Oscar Piastri, who completed several laps but without a time in the opening hour, finally made his mark. He was, however, two seconds down on his first flying lap.

Hamilton, meanwhile, had a moment out of Turn 11, seemingly caught out by the gusty wind. No such problems for Alonso who lowered the benchmark time to a 1:31.874 in the Aston Martin.

As the drivers continued with their morning programmes, Alex Albon spent the better part of an hour P1 in the Williams, 0.001s quicker than Lawson.

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Although the track had gripped up by then, pushing harder than they had earlier in the day, several drivers went wide, including Piastri and Jack Doohan, while Lawson had an impressive spin.

Exiting Turn 3, the New Zealander had a wobble, seemed to correct the car, and then lost it completely as he went backwards towards the gravel trap in a squeal of rubber. He managed to stop the car before it became beached.

Heading into the final hour before lunch, Alonso was back up into P1 ahead of Lawson and Hamilton. Within minutes though, Alonso was down to seventh place and it was Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli who was holding onto the top spot with a 1:31.428, a tenth up on Lawson.

He held that through to the chequered, his fastest time 0.132s up on Lawson with Albon a further 0.013s off the pace followed by Yuki Tsunoda and Hamilton with the top nine separated by a mere 0.741s. Bearman was the only one outside of that, four seconds down, as he continued to run the hard Pirelli tyres.

It was a morning in which the top nine were separated by just over seven-tenths and P1 changed hands between seven of the 10 drivers.

A notable difference to last year’s Day One in Bahrain which belonged to Max Verstappen who was 1.1 seconds up on Lando Norris. Norris in turn was seven-tenths faster than sixth-placed Lance Stroll.

Is Wednesday morning’s timesheet the first sign that predictions of a closer-than-close World Championship could be spot on?

Times

1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:31.428 79 laps
2 Liam Lawson Red Bull Racing +0.132 58 laps
3 Alexander Albon Williams +0.145 64 laps
4 Yuki Tsunoda Racing Bulls +0.182 77 laps
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.406 70 laps
6 Jack Doohan Alpine +0.413 69 laps
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.446 46 laps
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.656 65 laps
9 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +0.741 55 laps
10 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team +4.094 72 laps

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