In the opening day of what could be the final testing weekend if Bahrain is canceled, Vettel snaches the lead from the local hero Fernando Alonso. As the day started damp, The track soon dried out as the 2011 cars took the track, as Red Bull take the opertunity to try out the new Pirelli intermidiate tyres.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
| 01 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:24.374 |
| 02 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:25.485 |
| 03 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | 1:25.638 |
| 04 | Kamui Koboyashi | Sauber | 1:25.641 |
| 05 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:26.365 |
| 06 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 1:26.575 |
| 07 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams | 1:26.912 |
| 08 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:27.512 |
| 09 | Narain Karthikeyan | HTR | 1:28.393 |
| 10 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus | 1:30.065 |
| 11 | Jerome d'Ambrrosio | Virgin | 1:30.950 |
| 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1:35.174 |
| 13 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 1:44.324 |
