Kimi Antonelli leads the penultimate day of testing in Bahrain
Kimi Antonelli, driving for Mercedes, kept his team at the top of the timesheets during the penultimate day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, setting a benchmark time of 1:32.803. Antonelli surpassed by 0.058 seconds the time set by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who had led the session with the same C3 tire compound. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen placed third, 0.359 seconds behind Antonelli. The test day scheduled for Lewis Hamilton was interrupted by a technical problem that kept his Ferrari in the garage for much of the morning session. At the end of the day, Hamilton completed 78 laps and recorded the fourth-best time, 0.605 seconds behind Antonelli. Despite the inconveniences, Ferrari was encouraged by the two practice starts made by Hamilton at the end of both sessions. The FIA has invited all teams to participate in practice starts at the end of this week’s sessions, after concerns were raised about the additional time needed to make a clean start with the new 2026 power units. In the three practice starts carried out so far, the drivers have had an additional five seconds to rev their turbos before the lights go out, and on each occasion the Ferrari-powered cars, which are believed to have a smaller turbo, have made visibly better starts than their rivals.At the end of the afternoon session, Hamilton lined up in tenth position on the grid, with the drivers leaving spaces between each other to avoid collisions, and overtook four cars in the race towards turn 1, including Verstappen, who started from pole position.
Ferrari also caused a stir in the morning session by presenting a new rear wing with a novel approach to the new active aerodynamic regulations of F1. To reduce aerodynamic drag on the straights, the cars are equipped with movable front and rear wings that can be activated on designated straights around the track. Most teams have opted for a system that resembles last year’s DRS overtaking device, but on Thursday the Ferrari car debuted an upper flap that rotates 180 degrees, so that the upper element is effectively reversed when straight-line mode is activated. Ferrari reverted to its more conventional wing for the afternoon session, but is expected to use the new design in some races this year. The fastest times from the tests can be misleading due to different fuel loads, engine modes and track conditions, but Thursday’s times underlined the widespread belief that Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari are all in the fight as the top four teams.At the bottom of the table, Alpine continued their solid pre-season form with the sixth-best time for Franco Colapinto, 1.015 seconds behind Antonelli and 0.169 seconds faster than his midfield rival, Nico Hulkenberg, in the Audi. Esteban Ocon set the fastest time for Haas in ninth overall, ahead of Liam Lawson’s Racing Bull in tenth and Alex Albon’s Williams in eleventh.
Sergio Pérez set the fastest time of the tests for Cadillac with a 1:35.369 in the afternoon, placing the new team 2.566 seconds behind Antonelli’s benchmark. The team completed 108 laps between its two drivers, a significant improvement over Wednesday’s effort of 59 laps.
Aston Martin suffered another difficult day with reliability issues, as their nightmare start to the year continued. Fernando Alonso completed only 68 laps before a technical problem stopped the car on the track and prevented the team from running for the rest of the afternoon. His fastest time up to that point was 4.669 seconds behind Antonelli.
