Lando Noris Says After Being The Fastest On Day One Of F1 Pre-Season Tests Over Hamilton And Verstappen: It's Too Early To Conclude Anything

Lando Norris (Instagram @landonorris)

JAKARTA - Lando Norris took McLaren to the top of the record during the first day of Formula 1 pre-season testing at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit where 2022 cars designed to follow this season's regulatory overhaul ushered in a new era.

Norris, who tested the MCL36 all day, scored his best lap at the Spanish circuit in one minute 19.568 seconds on Wednesday to beat Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz who shared the task of testing the Ferrari F1-75.

Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton finished P5 behind George Russell after replacing his team-mate in the afternoon session.

Max Verstappen who carried number 1 in his Red Bull car this year as the reigning world champion, is ranked ninth.

"It's too early to draw any conclusions," Norris told the television media crew as quoted by Antara from Reuters.

"We have only one day into the season and even if we are outstanding now, everything can change when we arrive at the first race."

Verstappen's new RB18 was seen in public for the first time after Red Bull unveiled its livery and caught the eye for its new side pod design.

This allowed the Dutchman to score the most laps of the day with 147 laps.

"We wanted to take today's lap to get used to the car and get a general understanding of how it behaves," said Verstappen, who will hand over the task to Sergio Perez on Thursday.

"Everything is going really well, so it's a good start and a positive day."

Ferrari was the team that went the longest as Leclerc and Sainz racked up 153 laps for the Italian side. Eight out of 10 teams devoured more than 100 rounds.

Haas had a tough day when Nikita Mazepin found his car coolant leaking, while teammate Mick Schumacher was hindered by damage to the floor of the car so that both drivers only had 43 laps.

Alfa Romeo recorded the shortest distance of the day as reserve driver Robert Kubica and former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas made just 32 laps.

The meager lap times in the test, where teams and drivers run different programs and different amounts of fuel, were all the more irrelevant on Wednesday as participants were getting used to new cars that had a radical design to make racing this season tougher.

The team will resume testing the next two days before flying to Bahrain to undergo pre-season testing again on March 10-12.

The royal nation will also host the season-opening race on March 20.