Alpine complete 'first day of school' "with ease"

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon believes the team completed the opening day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain "with ease".

Ocon clocked 129 laps on Alpine's debut outing in an official F1 session, posting the third quickest time on a set of soft tyres as the team navigated the first two sessions without suffering any issues.

The Frenchman, who hands the A521 to Fernando Alonso for day two, was left beaming with the performance of the French constructor straight out of the blocks.

“Everything went well today, and it was definitely a good first day back at school," said Ocon.

"It was a solid one for the team, we completed the programme with ease and we even had time at the end of the day to do pit-stop practice with the team, which was quite nice as it meant we could get ourselves back into race situations.

"We put in some decent laps today and we learned everything we set out to achieve and that’s exactly what you need during test days."

Pre-season testing has been moved to Bahrain in order to avoid the extreme weather conditions experienced at the tail-end of winter in Barcelona.

Whilst this plan was thrown out of the window as the track was swept by a sandstorm for the afternoon session, Ocon insisted his run-plan was unaffected by the incredible conditions.

"We faced all kinds of conditions as well: heat this morning then strong gusts and a sandstorm this afternoon, so pretty much everything except rain," he added.

"That was interesting but we did what we needed to, and I look forward to driving the car again later this weekend.”

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