Charles Leclerc was fastest on day two of Formula 1’s 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain, pipping world champion Lando Norris who completed the most mileage.
The Ferrari driver set a 1m34.273s early in the morning session with his time on softs subsequently going unbeaten – 0.511s quicker than the medium-running McLaren, which was fastest on day one.
But Norris’ time also came in the morning as teams conducted more longrun programmes in the afternoon, while three red flag periods headlined the post-lunch session.
The first occurred midway through when Valtteri Bottas lost a part of his Cadillac’s right mirror, which landed on the track and nearly hit the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
The stoppage lasted for approximately 10 minutes, before another red flag intervened very shortly after due to Pierre Gasly’s Alpine stopping at Turn 1. A final red flag waved towards the end of the session to simply test the procedure.
It was the third time that Alpine caused a red flag since the start of the Barcelona shakedown last month, but it wasn’t the only Mercedes-powered outfit to suffer problems on day two in Bahrain.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images
That’s because the factory squad completed just three laps via Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the morning session, as a power unit issue ruled out the Mercedes driver for much of the session.
But things improved after lunch as Antonelli’s team-mate, and the bookmakers’ title favourite, George Russell moved up to fourth in the leaderboard with 54 laps completed – three short of a Bahrain race distance.
It came after the Briton set a 1m35.466s, putting him a second behind Leclerc but only 0.072s off third-placed Oliver Bearman, with whom he constantly swapped positions all afternoon.
Russell’s Mercedes has arguably been one of the two most talked about teams in pre-season with the other being Red Bull, which made headlines on Wednesday as Max Verstappen completed the most mileage.
But then, like Mercedes, it had its running curtailed on day two in the morning as newly promoted Isack Hadjar endured a hydraulic leak on his RB22, which meant the Frenchman completed just one lap.
Hadjar bounced back in the afternoon though with the fifth-fastest lap time, a 1m36.561s, meaning he and the rest of the field were at least two seconds behind the lead.
This comes with the usual caveat of it being pre-season testing and at such an early stage, the focus is on mileage instead of lap time considering everybody is on different rubber.
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
So it was Norris who led that particular leaderboard on Thursday, with 149 laps of Bahrain International Circuit ahead of Leclerc (139), Bearman (130), Fernando Alonso (98) and then Gasly (97).
That obviously favours the drivers who drove all day rather than share running with their team-mate, as Mercedes, Audi, Racing Bulls, Cadillac and Williams all split track time between drivers.
But it was still McLaren that conducted the most mileage of all teams with Ferrari in second, ahead of Racing Bulls (133), Williams (131), Haas (130) and Audi (114) with Cadillac (109) being the seventh and final team to hit a century of laps.
F1 Bahrain pre-season test Day 2 results
Driver
Car
Engine
Time
Laps
1
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari SF-26
Ferrari 067/6
1m34.273s
139
2
Lando Norris
McLaren MCL40
Mercedes F1 M17 E Performance
1m34.784s
149
3
Oliver Bearman
Haas VF-26
Ferrari 067/6
1m35.394s
130
4
George Russell
Mercedes F1 W17 E Performance
Mercedes F1 M17 E Performance
1m35.466s
54
5
Isack Hadjar
Red Bull RB22
Red Bull Ford DM01
1m36.561s
87
6
Gabriel Bortoleto
Audi R26
Audi AFR 26 Hybrid
1m36.670s
67
7
Pierre Gasly
Alpine A526
Mercedes F1 M17 E Performance
1m36.723s
97
8
Valtteri Bottas
Cadillac
Ferrari 067/6
1m36.824s
67
9
Alexander Albon
Williams FW48
Mercedes F1 M17 E Performance
1m37.229s
62
10
Nico Hulkenberg
Audi R26
Audi AFR 26 Hybrid
1m37.266s
47
11
Arvid Lindblad
Racing Bulls VCARB 03
Red Bull Ford DM01
1m37.470s
83
12
Carlos Sainz
Williams FW48
Mercedes F1 M17 E Performance
1m37.592s
69
13
Liam Lawson
Racing Bulls VCARB 03
Red Bull Ford DM01
1m38.017s
50
14
Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin AMR26
Honda RA626H
1m38.248s
98
15
Sergio Perez
Cadillac
Ferrari 067/6
1m38.653s
42
16
Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes F1 W17 E Performance
Mercedes F1 M17 E Performance
No time
3
Photos from Bahrain Pre-Season Testing – Day 2
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
Bahrain Pre-Season Testing Day 2, in photos
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