Antonelli races ahead: 18-year-old makes his first mark in Formula 1

The youngest is leading the way. Andrea Kimi Antonelli sets the fastest time in the first hours of Formula 1 testing in his Mercedes. World champion Max Verstappen's new teammate comes in second - despite problems keeping the car on the track.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, only 18 years old and successor to record world champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, set the fastest time on the morning of the opening day of Formula 1 testing in Bahrain. The Italian was allowed to drive the new Silver Arrow on the Grand Prix circuit in the Sakhir desert and relegated New Zealand Red Bull driver Liam Lawson to second place.

The new teammate of defending champion Max Verstappen, who is also still young at 23, had problems here and there keeping the Austrian racing team's new model on the track. He was 0.132 seconds behind Antonelli. However, the test times are not very meaningful, as the teams have different priorities and complete different programs.

While the Italian, who completed an impressive 78 laps in the morning, will be driving his first Grand Prix in the premier class of motorsport at the start of the season on March 16 in Melbourne, the 23-year-old Lawson has already completed a few races in Red Bull's second team, Racing Bulls. He is also one of a total of six drivers who will be starting the season as race drivers for the first time this year.

Record champion Hamilton initially only managed fifth place in the new Ferrari on the first of the three test days at the Bahrain International. The 40-year-old Briton was more than four tenths of a second slower than Antonelli, completing 70 laps. The team world champions from McLaren were quite inconspicuous with Oscar Piastri (66 laps).

Nico Hülkenberg, still the only German regular driver, finished ninth in the Sauber out of the ten drivers who took to the track in the morning. Four-time champion Verstappen will be behind the wheel of the Red Bull in the afternoon.