Hamilton third quickest in early Bahrain running as Lawson leads the way

Liam Lawson held the early advantage at the midway point of the opening session of the pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit.

In unusually cool conditions for the time of year, with temperatures just skimming 15 degrees Celsius and under cloudy skies, the Red Bull debutant topped the timesheet with a lap of one minute 31.574s in his hard-tyre shod Red Bull.

As a comparison, the pole position at last year's Bahrain Grand Prix was a lap of 1:29.179s, set by Max Verstappen in his Red Bull.

Just as the clock ticked past the two-hour mark, Lawson posted the leading lap, knocking Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso off top spot by exactly three-tenths of a second.  

It was a solid start for Lawson, who has been handed the challenge of being Verstappen's team-mate for this year, a task his predecessors have struggled with.

On his maiden outing for Ferrari, seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton was third quickest, 0.476s off the pace. The 40-year-old had a couple of moments, running wide at the exits of Turns 11 and 4 as he grew accustomed to his new machinery, but otherwise was untroubled over his 32 laps at the halfway stage.

The top seven drivers were all within eight-tenths of a second of one another, with Hamilton followed by Racing Bull's Yuki Tsunoda, Williams' Alex Albon, Jack Doohan on his initial outing with Alpine, and Nico Hulkenberg making his debut with Stake.

Further down the order, it was clear pace was not on the menu as another rookie in Kimi Antonelli was only ninth quickest, over two seconds adrift in his Mercedes, behind McLaren's Oscar Piastri, and ahead of Haas rookie Oliver Bearman, the Briton bringing up the rear, 4.045s down.