Image source, .

Stoo G: F1 testing, day one: Fernando Alonso is currently driving an orange three-wheeler. This isn't the picture from #bbcf1, external, but close enough.

I used to LOVE my granddad's three wheeled car, does anyone still drive them? (apart from Fernando Alonso)

We're good to go again.

Fernando Alonso was flying before he ended up in the gravel so it may well be that he pushed that bit too hard.

The McLaren has been recovered, debris cleared away and we should be back up and running soon.

Toby Godfrey: Lets hope that's just rare driver error from @alo_oficial, external as opposed to the car being a pig from the get go.

Think happy thoughts, Fernando. Think happy thoughts.

Kayleigh: I mean.... AT LEAST it wasn’t an engine issue tho.

Fernando Alonso's McLaren is in the gravel at the final corner. It's also missing a wheel.

Red flagpublished at 08:47 Greenwich Mean Time 26 February 2018

08:47 GMT 26 February 2018

First red flag in testing and, yep, you've probably guessed who caused it...

Of course we can't not mention the halo.

The launch pictures did a good job of making it look like it blended in seamlessly with the design of the cars. Mercedes posted a video last week of the view Valtteri Bottas had when he did a few laps and this was his assessment.

It was OK," he said. "No halo or halo, you can definitely spot the difference, but when you're running it all the time and it's fixed, it is what it is.

"For me, in those laps I did, it wasn't causing any issues for me. No problem with visibility."

One word to describe your first thought on seeing your team's 2018 car.

Richard Ellis: Ferrari - Narrow

Minimum Viable Choc: Halo

So far so good for McLaren as Fernando Alonso becomes the third driver to clock a time.

A 1:25.925 puts him between Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen.

I don't think I've ever seen such love for this page before...

Valtteri Bottas takes the Mercedes out for the first time and promptly joins Kimi Raikkonen on the timesheet with 1:28.762.

The Finn shaves a couple of seconds off with his next lap and then even more with the one after that as he tops the two driver order with 1:22.952.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Spain’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is not picked for winter testing solely because it is the closest F1-spec track with the most reliably predictable weather at this time of year. It is also because its combination of long-duration corners tests every facet of a car’s ability, so gives the teams an unusually good insight into the performance of their machinery. This year, though, there is an additional challenge, in that the track has been recently resurfaced - meaning the teams will have to work extra-hard to extrapolate what they see over the next few days.

Mercedes technical director James Allison says: “Barcelona is quite an aggressive track on the tyres. It tears them up in the winter. You get a lot of graining. This year is going to be particularly interesting because they have just resurfaced Barcelona and it is lot smoother, and the sort of rubber that would be torn up last year in winter testing could probably survive this year. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it is going to be super-representative of the remainder of the year.”

And here's the Renault taking a break from filming the latest Transformers film...

Image source, Getty Images

And here is the Renault in all its glory...

Image source, Renault

Richard Ellis: I like the look of the Renault, Black and Yellow go together very well!

Solid start by McLaren.

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Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso and several others have been out on the track for installation laps. The track briefly falls silent as everyone pops back to base before Kimi Raikkonen re-emerges and puts in the first time of the day - a 1:58.273.