Antonelli fastest for Mercedes in first morning of testing as Hamilton fifth

Kimi Antonelli ended the first morning of 2025 F1 pre-season testing fastest, as Lewis Hamilton finished fifth for Ferrari. 

The first four hours of official on-track running for the season kicked off at 1000 local time, with new Mercedes racer 18-year-old Antonelli the first car out on track, quickly followed by 43-year-old Fernando Alonso with all 401 grand prix starts behind him. 

In what was a largely trouble-free session, the biggest moment of drama came after Liam Lawson spun the Red Bull at Turns 2 and 3, narrowly avoiding beaching himself in the gravel. 

Lawson had topped the times just after the mid-session two-hour mark, but heading into the final hour, Antonelli popped up with a 1:31.428 lap on the medium tyres to record the fastest lap. 

By comparison, the pole time for the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix was a 1:29.179 from Max Verstappen. 

Kiwi Lawson did manage to close to 0.132s of Italian Antonelli, with Alex Albon rounding out the top three for Williams. 

Elsewhere, Hamilton was a solid fifth for Ferrari, although he did have the biggest moments aside from Lawson's spin.

The Ferrari driver ran wide at Turn 11 and then Turn 4, even dipping a wheel into the gravel as the gusty cross and tail-winds affected the balance of the SF-25. 

His best time was a 1:31.834, just 0.007s faster than Jack Doohan in the Alpine, with Alonso also in the 1:31.8 bracket for Aston Martin.

Oscar Piastri had a quiet morning for reigning constructors' champions McLaren, and placed only eighth, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in the new Stake machine.

The only outlier to the opening morning of the test was Ollie Bearman for Haas, who ended 4.1s off Antonelli's pace.

Bearman spent his morning with the tanks brimmed of fuel and focused on race pace simulations, completing some 72 laps, although none of them were pure performance-based.

Every driver apart from Alonso (46) and Hulkenberg (55) completed at least a race distance of 57 laps, with Antonelli posting a session-high 79 laps, with Hamilton racking up 70.

The afternoon session runs from 15:00-19:00 local time (12:00-16:00 UK) with all 10 drivers swapping with their team-mates, meaning Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and George Russell will be on-track later today.