F1 Bahrain Test: Mercedes 0.01s Clear of McLaren Amid Four Team Issues

The Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain commenced its second week at Sakhir, with George Russell achieving the quickest lap time recorded to date.

During the afternoon session, the Mercedes competitor completed a lap in 1 minute 33.459 seconds, outpacing his colleague Kimi Antonelli’s previous week’s best of 1 minute 33.669 seconds by two-tenths of a second. Both instances utilized C3 compound tires.

Russell was not the only one to show notable improvement over the prior week; Piastri also improved his time by a full second, recording a 1 minute 33.469 second lap, similarly on C3 tires. The Australian held the top position for a period until Russell’s final run edged him out by a mere 0.01 seconds.

Charles Leclerc established the morning’s fastest time, completing a lap in 1 minute 33.739 seconds on experimental tires, marking Ferrari’s best performance yet. However, the day for the Italian team was not without complications, as Lewis Hamilton managed only 44 laps in the afternoon, spending an hour and a half in the pit garage due to an undisclosed mechanical problem.

Lando Norris and Antonelli rounded out the top five. Isack Hadjar of Red Bull, who was the sole participant to complete the entire day’s schedule, placed sixth. Hadjar achieved a personal best of 1 minute 34.260 seconds but completed a modest 66 laps for the day, as his morning session was limited to 13 laps due to a technical fault involving the engine’s cooling system.

Consistent with the concerns of many mid-field teams, a significant performance gap persisted relative to the leading constructors. Williams, the fifth quickest team, saw Carlos Sainz record a time of 1 minute 35.113 seconds, lagging 1.654 seconds behind the fastest driver, Piastri.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images

The teams Alpine, Audi, and Racing Bulls finished 1.795 seconds, 1.804 seconds, and 2.294 seconds behind, driven by emerging talents Franco Colapinto, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Liam Lawson, in that order.

Of the remaining three teams—Aston Martin, Haas, and Cadillac—two experienced a notably problematic day.

Aston encountered engine difficulties, resulting in a four-hour garage stay from approximately noon to 4 PM local time. After Lance Stroll eventually commenced the team’s afternoon schedule, he prompted a red flag incident by spinning into the Turn 10 gravel trap, which appeared to stem from a technical malfunction rather than a driver error. The team subsequently lost an additional ninety minutes, with the AMR26 concluding the day with only 54 laps.

Conversely, Aston demonstrated a positive advancement, reducing its lap time by over two seconds from the previous week, moving from 1 minute 38.165 seconds to 1 minute 35.974 seconds.

Cadillac, in the interim, experienced a loss of roughly three hours due to prolonged periods in the garage during the early parts of both the morning and afternoon sessions; the morning’s hold-up was attributed to sensor problems. Sergio Perez completed merely 24 laps, while Valtteri Bottas managed 35; neither driver’s efforts produced a truly indicative lap time for their still-unnamed vehicle.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images

Addressing concerns surrounding the start protocol for the forthcoming 2026 F1 cars, a starting procedure simulation was conducted at the conclusion of the day, where all ten participating vehicles successfully initiated without stalling as the lights extinguished.

Formula 1 Bahrain Pre-Season Test – Day 4 Outcomes