February 22, 2016 – The 2016 Formula 1 world championship season kicked off today with the first pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
Ferrari’s Sebastien Vettel set the quickest time in his SF16-H on the medium compound, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who clocked 156 laps in the W07 Hybrid, the most of any, and more than twice as much as Vettel.
There were no major issues throughout the day, with the only hiccup appearing in the morning session when Romain Grosjean’s Haas VF-16 lost its front wing due to a failure.
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m24.939s | – | 69 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m25.409s | 0.470s | 156 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/TAG Heuer | 1m26.044s | 1.105s | 87 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 1m26.091s | 1.152s | 80 |
| 5 | Alfonso Celis | Force India/Mercedes | 1m26.298s | 1.359s | 58 |
| 6 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 1m26.735s | 1.796s | 84 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1m27.180s | 2.241s | 55 |
| 8 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m27.555s | 2.616s | 88 |
| 9 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor/Mercedes | 1m28.292s | 3.353s | 54 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 1m28.399s | 3.460s | 31 |
| 11 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault |
