Mercedes, favorites to win the F1 pre-season in early 2026, began the ultimate Bahrain check with George Russell because the quickest on day one whereas their rivals encountered issues.
It is nonetheless obscure the aggressive standings after three days of testing in Bahrain final week, however Mercedes did nothing to shake off the favorites tag by taking an outright lead.
After Ferrari led within the opening session of Wednesday’s second Bahrain check, Mercedes took management once more within the night.
George Russell accomplished over 75 laps in his new automobile and set the quickest time of 1 minute 33.459 seconds, recorded within the final hour of the race.
Charles Leclerc’s opening time of 1 minute 33.739 seconds remained the benchmark an hour into the afternoon session.
Nevertheless, the Ferrari driver was ultimately knocked down by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and took the lead within the standings with a time of 1 minute 33.469 seconds.
Because the session progressed, many drivers took benefit of the improved street situations and tried time assault runs.
Russell led Piastri at this stage with a time of 1 minute 33.459 seconds, and ran the day with none issues from the start to the top.
The session was red-flagged with 10 minutes left to hold out the beginning process once more following final Friday’s disastrous try.
Piastri retained second place forward of Leclerc, who changed teammate Lewis Hamilton within the afternoon.
Nevertheless, Ferrari encountered its first severe technical downside throughout testing in Bahrain, with Hamilton confined to the storage for a while within the second session.
Finally returning to the session and finishing greater than 40 laps, the seven-time world champion completed seventh general.
Lando Norris was fourth in his McLaren within the first session, whereas Andrea Kimi Antonelli was fifth after 69 laps.
Isaac Hajjar’s day was once more interrupted by technical issues in Crimson Bull’s first session, with an issue with the water system robbing him of monitor time.
He completed the day in sixth place, whereas Williams’ Carlos Sainz was eighth behind Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Audi’s Gabriel Bortleto.
Wednesday’s solely incident-related crimson flag occurred throughout the first hour of the afternoon session, after Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll spun at Flip 11 and fell into the gravel.
This compounded an already tough day for the group, which suffered an issue with its Honda engine within the first session, costing it very important monitor time.
Stroll grew to become Aston’s prime driver in fifteenth place, 2.515 seconds off the tempo after simply 26 laps, whereas Fernando Alonso, seventeenth, solely accomplished 28 laps.
4-time world champion Max Verstappen didn’t run on Wednesday as he’ll substitute Hajjar at Crimson Bull on Thursday.
Full outcomes from the primary day of Bahrain F1 testing 2026
