The top two teams in last year’s constructors’ championship, Mercedes and Ferrari, looked in fine form as F1 testing got underway at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain on Monday.
Sebastian Vettel set the day’s fastest time for Ferrari with a rapid medium tyre-shod run in the SF16-H just before lunch, whilst perennial rival and reigning champion Lewis Hamilton clocked an astonishing 156 laps in the Silver Arrows’ brand-new F1 W07 Hybrid.
Hamilton, whose mileage total topped the 695.196km managed by team mate Nico Rosberg on last year’s opening test day in Jerez, finished 0.470s back of Vettel, having also set his best time on medium tyres in the morning session.
Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest for Red Bull, just ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas with Force India’s rookie test driver Alfonso Celis a further two-tenths back.
All 11 teams were in action, and all bar Sauber gave their 2016 cars their official track debuts. Among them were newcomers Haas, for whom Romain Grosjean finished 10th after 31 laps in the Ferrari-powered VF-16, despite suffering an early front wing failure.
Monday's unofficial testing times from Barcelona
| POS | Driver | Team/Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari SF16-H | 1:24.939 | 69 | |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid | 1:25.409 | 0.470 | 156 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB12 | 1:26.044 | 1.105 | 87 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes FW38 | 1:26.091 | 1.152 | 80 |
| 5 | Alfonso Celis | Force India-Mercedes VJM09 | 1:26.298 | 1.359 | 58 |
| 6 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda MP4-31 | 1:26.735 | 1.796 | 84 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11 | 1:27.180 | 2.241 | 55 |
| 8 | Marcus Ericcson | Sauber-Ferrari C34 | 1:27.555 | 2.616 | 88 |
| 9 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor Racing-Ferrari MRT05 | 1:28.292 | 3.353 | 54 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari VF-16 | 1:28.399 | 3.460 | 31 |
| 11 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault R.S.16 | 1:29.356 | 4.417 | 37 |
