New Red Bull Formula 1 driver Isack Hadjar was fastest on the opening day of Formula 1's private, five-day test at Barcelona.
Seven teams took to the track - some fielding the same driver throughout, some swapping at midday - as F1 sought to limit the amount of information coming out from the track, with security patrolling its surroundings and a publicly available live timing feed cut off a few hours into the running.
All throughout, the Red Bull and the Mercedes were the two standout cars in the classification, taking turns in first place.
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Ultimately, Hadjar - whose Red Bull team was revealed by tyre supplier Pirelli to have overwhelmingly favoured the C3 soft tyre in its selection for the test - ended the day quickest with a 1m18.159s.
This was enough for the RB22 (powered by Red Bull's new bespoke engine developed with assistance from Ford) to end up over half a second clear, though this was also over four seconds off the opening practice time from the Spanish Grand Prix weekend at Barcelona last year.
For Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli ran in the morning (when he was Hadjar's closest rival on the timing screens) and George Russell took over the W17 in the afternoon, ending up second.
Alpine had caused the day's first red flag but Franco Colapinto, in the Mercedes-powered car all day, ended up third.
More from day one
- What it's like being locked out of F1's first 2026 test
- Why F1's making a big mistake
- Security clampdown outside Barcelona
Esteban Ocon had a very busy day in the Haas, clocking in 154 laps, by far the most of any driver (though Mercedes was not far off through the combined efforts of Antonelli and Russell).
For comparison, Haas was also the most prolific team on the opening day of last year's test in Bahrain, with 160 laps. The teams then managed an average of 130 - though the Bahrain layout is notably longer than that of Barcelona.
Going by the mileage numbers, it was a bit of a baptism of fire for newcomers Audi and Cadillac.
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An Audi stoppage with Gabriel Bortoleto behind the wheel caused an early red flag, and the car - equipped with the new Audi power unit - seemingly never returned from there on.
"We had a technical issue with the car," explained Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley.
"We spotted it, decided to switch the car off on track. We've got plenty of testing this year and we wanted to really understand the problem, so we've been carefully analysing that."
Meanwhile, Cadillac logged mileage with both Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez but that mileage was limited overall, with issues reported and Perez in particular barely getting into a double-digit lapcount.
Ferrari is due to join the test on Tuesday, with McLaren set to begin its programme either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Aston Martin isn't expected before Thursday (so isn't going to get the three allowed days in), while Williams is missing the test.
Day one times
1 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) 1m18.159s, 107 laps
2 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.537s, 93 laps
3 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +2.030s, 60 laps
4 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +2.541s, 56 laps
5 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +3.142s, 154 laps
6 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +3.354s, 88 laps
7 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +6.492s, 33 laps
8 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +7.137s, 27 laps
9 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +7.815s, 11 laps
