George and Kimi Kick-Off First Day of Testing in Bahrain

• Following the Barcelona Shakedown, the W17 returned to the track for the first of six days of testing in Bahrain over the next two weeks.

• George was behind-the-wheel for the morning completing 56 laps before Kimi took over for the afternoon.

• A suspension issue interrupted the Italian’s running though and he was limited to only 30 laps before the chequered flag came out.

• On the timing screens, George ended the day P6 with Kimi P11.

• The team will return to the track tomorrow with Kimi in the car for the morning with George taking over for the afternoon.

George Russell

We've had a difficult first day here in Bahrain. We had a solid three days on track in Barcelona, but we haven't hit the ground running here in the Middle East. We were experimenting with the overall balance of the car this morning, but it didn't feel as responsive as it did in Spain. That is partly to do with the higher track temperatures but there's work for us to do to get the W17 into a happier place.

Unfortunately, we lost plenty of laps this afternoon with a suspension issue that kept Kimi in the garage for a few hours. Our competitors, particularly Red Bull Racing and McLaren, have once again impressed as they did in Barcelona. It's clear that we've got ground to make up and we are already working hard to do so.

Kimi Antonelli

It was good to be back in the car following the shakedown in Barcelona. Unfortunately, we had a suspension issue that interrupted our programme this afternoon, so my running was limited. We lost close to two hours of track time and that has set our programme back. The garage did a great job though to fix the problem as quickly as they could and we were able to complete 30 laps before the end of the day.

It's not an ideal start to this first test so we’re looking forward to getting back on track tomorrow. Several of our competitors have looked very strong today so we are playing catch-up. Our aim is to have a smoother day tomorrow and to add to our learning of the W17.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

Today has been difficult, especially compared to the near perfect running that we had in Barcelona, but in many ways, it has served to highlight a few areas that we need to improve.

George had an interrupted session in the morning. We had several issues that meant we were late getting out first thing; that was due to a few changes in the garage that we hadn't done before during a session and that took a bit longer than expected. On top of that, the car balance wasn't great causing challenges with brake locking, poor traction and general inconsistency.

Kimi took over after lunch and during the various changes, we discovered an issue on the suspension that required further investigation. That cost us a couple of hours and, once we had left the garage, we only had time remaining for two sets of the hardest tyre to baseline the car and work on our long running. We're still learning how the W17 behaves and clearly have a bit of work to do to get in back in the right window. Thankfully, we've got two more days of running this week and are not short of ideas, so hopefully can take a good step forward tomorrow.