Lewis Hamilton units Ferrari’s quickest lap time as the primary week of 2026 F1 testing attracts to a detailed in Barcelona.
The seven-time world champion flexed the muscular tissues of his Ferrari SF-26 on delicate tyres, clocking a lap time of 1 minute 16.348 seconds and overdue setting a brand new benchmark.
Hamilton’s effort beat the quickest time set by former Mercedes teammate George Russell on the penultimate day of the five-day shakedown behind closed doorways by a tenth of a second.
Lap occasions alone need to be taken with a sure grain of salt at this early stage, however it will likely be encouraging for each Ferrari and Hamilton that higher occasions await after a really disappointing 2025 season.
Not solely did Ferrari prime the timesheets in Barcelona, however their 2026 automobile ran reliably and racked up spectacular mileage. Hamilton hinted at that after Thursday’s first dry-weather run.
Hamilton’s ultimate wonderful run dethroned reigning world champion Lando Norris, who had spent a lot of the afternoon clocking 1 minute 16.594 seconds in his McLaren MCL40, from the highest spot.
His 41-year-old British teammate Charles Leclerc additionally clocked a time of 1 minute 16 seconds on delicate tires within the morning session, ending third behind Oscar Piastri’s McLaren.
Purple Bull’s Max Verstappen was lastly in a position to resume testing after lacking the fourth day of testing to attend for spare elements following Izak Hajar’s heavy crash on Tuesday.
The four-time world champion recovered from a small fall at Flip 10 within the morning to finish up fifth quickest with a lap of 1:17.586.
Alonso experiences Neways Aston for the primary time
Fernando Alonso turned heads earlier within the day when he obtained his first style of Adrian Newey’s eye-catching Aston Martin AMR26, which made its long-awaited debut within the ultimate hour of Thursday’s follow.
The 2-time world champion accomplished a complete of 61 laps and set a greatest time of 1 minute 20.795 seconds, bettering the tempo of the lagging Aston Martin and ending eleventh.
Pierre Gasly had a productive day with 164 laps within the Mercedes-powered Alpine, probably the most laps of any single driver, and completed sixth on the timesheets.
Valtteri Bottas was slowest in twelfth place, greater than 4 seconds off the Cadillac’s tempo.
Mercedes, which topped the timesheets on Thursday and Friday and is the favourite for victory in early 2026, had already accomplished the three days of driving allowed within the opening check and was not lively on Friday.
Other than Mercedes, Racing Bulls and Williams, who missed the primary week of testing as a result of delays within the manufacturing of the FW48, the opposite eight groups had been as a result of end their packages.
F1 will then head to Bahrain for 2 official pre-season assessments on February 11-13 and 18-20.
