Mercedes once again fastest on the opening day of testing

After its utterly dominant performance during last weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Mercedes continues where it left off a few days ago – Valtteri Bottas went fastest on the opening day of the post-season testing.

Just two days after the 2019 FIA Formula One season concluded at Abu Dhabi, teams and drivers commenced their preparation work for the forthcoming year with a Pirelli tyre test.

Each of the sport's ten teams participated in the only post-season test with Toro Rosso and Williams being the only teams to work with two cars. The Faenza-based outfit provided Sean Gelael with the unique chance of driving a Formula One car while the Grove-based squad worked with Roy Nissany next to its race driver George Russell.

The first day of test proved to be useful as most of the teams managed to get a huge amount of miles under their belt. On a day without a single interruption, only Sebastian Vettel was involved in an incident of note as he was tapped into a spin by Sergio Perez at Turn 11. The German appeared not to see the Racing Point trying to pass on the inside and turned in.