Mercedes’ George Russell ended F1’s 2025 pre-season test as the fastest driver on the grid heading into the new season.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped the morning session before Red Bull’s Max Verstappen showed his true hand in the afternoon, until Russell left it until the final minutes to snatch the day’s headline time from the reigning champion by 0.021 seconds.
F1 now heads to Melbourne, Australia, for the season-opener on the weekend of 14-16 March, with F2 and F3 in tow.
Morning
After Liam Lawson drove the entire of the second day of testing for Red Bull, Verstappen was straight out on track to commence his programme, ahead of Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Haas’ Oliver Bearman.
Ferrari’s Leclerc however set the initial pace and after he was briefly displaced by Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Leclerc quickly regained the fastest lap with 1m 30.861 to headline the opening hour before he then lowered just past the hour mark to 1m 30.811 to ultimately top the morning running.
Drivers subsequently spent much of the morning session focused on race simulations and data gathering amidst bodywork issue for Bearman, as the bodywork across the engine cover of his Haas blew off barely 30 minutes into the session.
There was a brief red flag with just under 45 minutes left after a pane of glass in the race control box on the start-finish straight smashed to the ground, but Leclerc’s effort otherwise remained unbeaten ahead of Antonelli and McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Aston Martin meanwhile switched their drivers around due to Lance Stroll feeling unwell which meant that Alonso participated in the morning session, with the Spaniard having managed 49 laps as he finished eighth quickest.
Afternoon
Red Bull and Williams kept Verstappen plus Albon respectively in their cars after the lunch break whilst the eight other teams rotated their drivers, with Haas’ Esteban Ocon the first to head out on track before the session was briefly red flagged due to a shuttle bus on track at turn 10.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly though was the first driver to make an impact upon the top ten as the session resumed four minutes later, as the Frenchman produced 1m 30.657 in the 26th minute to beat Leclerc’s time.
Gasly proceeded to twice lower the benchmark to 1m 30.282, yet it was Mercedes’ George Russell who went fastest with 1m 30.054 just before the hour mark.
Gasly however responded with 1m 30.040 in the 70th minute to return to the summit by 0.014s, until Verstappen showed his hand with 1m 29.844 in the 128th minute to displace the Frenchman.
The reigning champion eventually found 0.045s just 27 minutes later to lower his benchmark time to 1m 29.799, whilst many drivers primarily focused on their data gathering except for Aston Martin who swapped Alonso back into the cockpit after Stroll felt unwell again despite having managed 34 laps.
With just 56 minutes left on the clock, Albon managed to go fastest with a surprise 1m 29.650 on the C4 tyre but Verstappen responded 14 minutes later with 1m 29.566 to put himself back top on the C3 tyre.
Russell however waited until six minutes left to snatch the fastest time of the day with 1m 29.545 on the C3 tyre to top the running from Verstappen and Albon.
Albon finished the day with more laps than anyone else after he managed 134 laps in total across both sessions, whilst he, Hamilton and Ocon set their fastest lap times on the C4 tyre compound whereas everyone managed their quickest laps on the C3 tyres.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1m 29.545 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.021 |
| 3 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.105 |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.395 |
| 5 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.495 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.800 |
| 7 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls | + 0.952 |
| 8 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 1.183 |
| 9 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 1.266 |
| 10 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | + 1.343 |
| 11 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 1.398 |
| 12 | Jack Doohan | Alpine | + 1.694 |
| 13 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 2.154 |
| 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | + 2.181 |
| 15 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | + 2.216 |
| 16 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 2.539 |
| 17 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | + 2.602 |
| 18 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 2.816 |
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