Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli headed George Russell on the final day of the first 2026 F1 pre-season test.
On a day dominated by data gathering and long runs, Antonelli set 1m 33.669 in the afternoon session to head his Mercedes, teammate, Russell who had topped the morning session.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton headed a queue of cars straight out on track as the morning session commenced as teams focused on aerodynamic testing.
Red flags were soon out nearly 50 minutes into the session after Cadillac’s Valtteri stopped on track with a technical issue.
Mercedes meanwhile endured reliability issues of their own yesterday (12 February) but managed to immediately rebound back within the first hour of running, as Russell set 1m 33.918 as the benchmark time.
His time eventually remained unbeaten for the remainder of the morning session as teams focused on data gathering and setup experiments, with only Hamilton able to get close as he fell 0.291 seconds shy of his British compatriot.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1m 33.918 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.291 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 1.423 |
| 4 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 2.054 |
| 5 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 2.472 |
| 6 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 2.956 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 3.268 |
| 8 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 3.320 |
| 9 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | + 3.618 |
| 10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 4.505 |
| 11 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | + 4.854 |
The afternoon running amidst some driver changes for various team continued in the same vein as the morning session focused primarily on data gathering and long runs.
Antonelli however went fastest shortly past the two-hour mark of the afternoon session as he posted 1m 33.900 on the C3 tyre, which he lowered shortly afterwards to 1m 33.669 to stay fastest.
The afternoon session eventually saw a red flag with 11 minutes left after Hamilton pulled off at Turn 8 with a technical issue, although the session resumed five minutes later followed by a red flag procedure test with four minutes left as Antonelli topped the timings.
F1 returns to Bahrain for the second three-day test between 18-20 February.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1m 33.669 |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.249 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.540 |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.880 |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 1.672 |
| 6 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | + 1.914 |
| 7 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 2.084 |
| 8 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 2.137 |
| 9 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 2.303 |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | + 2.622 |
| 11 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 3.124 |
| 12 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 3.139 |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 3.517 |
| 14 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | + 3.867 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 4.496 |
| 16 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | + 5.103 |
| 17 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | + 5.582 |
Leave a Reply