Red Bull and Aston Martin were among the teams that lost significant track time in a first session of the second Bahrain Formula 1 2026 test where Charles Leclerc was fastest for Ferrari.
Leclerc recorded his team’s fastest time of pre-season testing in Bahrain so far within an hour of the second three-day test commencing, setting a 1m33.739s on an unmarked set of mid-range C3 compound tyres in an SF-26 that is sporting a curious new wing behind its exhaust.
Lando Norris was second fastest for McLaren, improving his time in the second hour to a 1m34.052s on the C2 tyres.
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli recorded the fastest first and third sectors of all on his best lap on Wednesday, but ended up four tenths of a second behind Leclerc on a 1m34.158s. His 1m33.669s from the final day of the first test last week remains the best lap anyone has managed in Bahrain.
Antonelli also complete three nine-lap simulation runs broadly in the mid-1m37s range – only two of those 27 laps were in the 1m38s – and completed a fourth run during yet another blackout of F1’s live timing.
Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly set the fastest times of testing so far for Mercedes engine customers Williams and Alpine respectively. The ended the session fourth and fifth.
Red Bull was sixth in the times but was one of three teams, to different extents, that ended up cut adrift from the rest from a mileage standpoint.
Isack Hadjar completed the fewest laps of any driver – just 13 – and was only on track in the first 75 minutes of the four-hour session.
He is due back out in the Red Bull RB22 in Wednesday’s second session; Red Bull is the only team running one driver only on day one.
It took Cadillac an hour and 20 minutes to send Sergio Perez out on track and it was another hour still before he completed any meaningful running with a 15-lap stint.
Perez did return to the track with half an hour remaining, completing 24 laps by the end of the session and improving his best time to a 1m38.191s, although he did still end the session slowest and 1.4s off 10th-placed Arvid Lindblad. The Racing Bulls driver completed the most laps (75) of anyone.
Just when it looked like Aston Martin was on course for a solid first morning of the second test, having recorded the fewest laps of any team in the first test, Fernando Alonso returned to the pitlane just before the end of the second hour and did not return to the track.
Before that, he’d completed 28 laps and did take more than a second and a half off Aston Martin’s best time of testing, which is now a 1m36.536s.
Other than the procedural red flag that race control is showing inside the final 10 minutes of all Bahrain test sessions, the session was not halted by any of the teams stopping out on track.
Test two day one times (first session)
1 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m33.739s, 70 laps
2 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m34.052s, 54 laps
3 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1m34.158s, 69 laps
4 Alex Albon (Williams) 1m35.690s, 55 laps
5 Pierre Gasly (Williams) 1m35.898s, 61 laps
6 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) 1m36.188s, 13 laps
7 Esteban Ocon (Haas) 1m36.418s, 65 laps
8 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 1m36.536s, 28 laps
9 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) 1m36.741s, 49 laps
10 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) 1m36.769s, 75 laps
11 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) 1m38.191s, 24 laps
