Ferrari and Charles Leclerc took the lead within the opening session of the ultimate day of the Bahrain F1 check after issues with Mercedes introduced out a purple flag.
Regardless of struggling a dip in type thus far all through pre-season, Mercedes completed the primary check in Bahrain quickest and led this week’s observe on Wednesday and Thursday.
Mercedes haven’t been with out technical issues throughout testing, however on Friday they suffered their first on-track breakdown of pre-season with Andrea Kimi Antonelli on the wheel.
Antonelli’s automotive stopped on the straight between turns 10 and 11 with lower than two hours remaining, prompting a purple flag.
The automotive was rapidly recovered, however Antonelli didn’t come out once more for the rest of the primary session. Mercedes recognized the issue as a lack of air strain.
He won’t drive a automotive once more till FP1 in Melbourne on March 6.
Ferrari had no such issues, with Charles Leclerc finishing 80 laps within the SF-26 within the first 4 hours of Friday’s observe.
The Monaco athlete topped the timesheets throughout the first hour with a time of 1 minute 33.689 seconds and was unbeaten by the checkered flag.
Dwell: Newest updates on the ultimate day of Bahrain F1 testing
Antonelli maintained his second place with a time of 1 minute 33.916 seconds after 49 laps, handing over the driving to George Russell in session two.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was third, 0.663 seconds off the tempo after 66 laps, whereas Haas’s Esteban Ocon as soon as once more confirmed robust tempo.
He accomplished probably the most laps on Tour in Session 1 with 82. Pink Bull’s Izak Hajar was fifth after 59 laps.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was sixth forward of Racing Bull’s Arvid Lindblad, adopted by Carlos Sainz (Williams), Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) and Cadillac’s Sergio Perez.
Cadillac had a sluggish begin on Friday, however Perez was capable of full 61 laps.
Aston Martin additionally suffered a disastrous session this pre-season as its Honda-powered AMR26 accomplished simply two laps.
Lance Stroll was caught within the pit lane for nearly the whole session following the Honda as a consequence of a battery drawback that occurred with Fernando Alonso on Thursday.
Honda is operating simulations at its Sakura base, with a collusion with a scarcity of energy unit components forcing Aston to run solely a brief stint on the ultimate day.
Testing will proceed till 12pm native time.
2026 Bahrain F1 Take a look at Day 3 Full Outcomes
