1 – Alonso?!

For some inexplicable reason, Fernando Alonso was 0.029 seconds away from reigning world champion Max Verstappen’s time. Quite how his Aston Martin suddenly become rapid we will never know – was it a fluke of testing or a sign of future promise?

2 – Red Bull

Quelle surprise! A Red Bull driven by Max Verstappen is fastest. Will this be another dominant season for the Dutchman or will the others give him a run for his money? I’m fearing the former.

3 – F1 Changes

There’s been a few changes this year in F1 that have definitely made me think while watching testing. Firstly, I still think that Gasly drives for AlphaTauri and I think Orlen still sponsor Alfa Romeo – one day I’ll work it out.

4 – Inspector Hamilton

With the absence of Sebastian Vettel, we thought drivers turning detectives would be a thing of that past. Thankfully Hamilton and Bottas have put their investigative hats on to check out the RB19.

5 – Williams

Williams have done a decent job today with both cars in the top 10. It means very little but it’s just nice to see the beleaguered team not at the bottom of a timesheet. Good start for Sargeant too.

6 – That Mercedes

Doesn’t the Mercedes look good in black, until I saw it on track I didn’t realise how much I missed the black car. However, whether it is quick is still unanswered, the two Mercedes drivers were 5th and 9th but is that promise or a step backwards?

7 – Slow Alpine

Rounding off the order was Alpine, languishing at the bottom even though they used the same tyres as everyone else in the most part. Are they hiding something or just slow?

8 – Poor Felipe Drugovich

A small amount of F1 pity is in order for Felipe Drugovich, the F2 champion stepping in for Lance Stroll ended up stood beside the track with a conked out Aston Martin – probably not how he thought his F1 dreams would play out.

9 – Slow AlphaTauri

In addition to the slow Alpine, we also seem to have a slow AlphaTauri. They weren’t particularly rapid last year but this could be a backwards step.

10 – Is porpoising back?

From what I’ve seen, there are teams (not naming names) who are experiencing bouncing. This could be due to the track and I’ve not heard the word porpoise yet but you never know!