Leclerc Dominates Final Day of 2026 F1 Testing

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc dominated the final day of the second F1 pre-season test ahead of the 2026 campaign. 

Leclerc dominated the morning session with 1m 33.689 in an early qualifying simulation run, but found 1.697 seconds by the end of the afternoon session to set the pace heading into the season-opener in Melbourne, Australia between 6-8 March.

As the final day of testing went live, Arvid Lindblad, Esteban Ocon and Leclerc were first to venture out on the track, whilst Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was limited to brief short runs throughout the day due to a shortage of power unit parts.

 

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Ocon meanwhile laid 1m 38.323 as the first benchmark time which was soon beaten by Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, who posted 1m 35.011.

Leclerc meanwhile opted for a very early qualifying simulation and set 1m 33.887 in the 20th minute to go fastest overall, which he beat just 12 minutes later with 1m 33.689 on C3 tyres to top the morning session as many teams focused primarily on their long runs amidst a brief qualifying simulation.

The Monegasque consequently topped the timesheet at the lunch break from Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Oscar Piastri, Ocon and Hadjar, with 0.822 seconds splitting the top five as the latter quartet handed their cars over to their teammates for the final afternoon session of the test.

Antonelli’s session however came to a premature end between Turns 10 and 11 in the 132nd minute of running, due to a loss of pneumatic pressure which necessitated a power unit change, with the session subsequently red flagged for six minutes whilst his Mercedes was removed.

Amidst a short early-afternoon lull once the pit exit lights went green, Haas’ Oliver Bearman was first to hit the track but nobody really made an impact on the morning’s lap times.

Leclerc eventually was the first driver to make a splash on the timesheet in the afternoon as he lowered his benchmark time to 1m 33.629, before he subsequently found more time just past the two-hour mark to set 1m 33.162 as track temperatures began to fall at dusk.

Verstappen meanwhile went third with his first representative lap time then second and managed to get to within 0.445s of Leclerc’s lap time with 83 minutes left of the session, but Norris found further time just a minute later to fall 0.211s shy.

Leclerc however responded with 76 minutes left of running to set 1m 32.655 as a new benchmark time on the C3 tyres, as attention switched to representative qualifying simulations which will await drivers at the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend from 10-12 April.

Norris responded five minutes later with 1m 32.871 to stay second and circa 0.2s off Leclerc’s pace, yet the Monegasque posted 1m 32.297 with 40 minutes to further extend his lead.

Leclerc eventually posted 1m 31.992 with 28 minutes left on the clock to top the final day of testing from Norris as testing drew to a close, with the grid now focused on preparing for the season-opener in Melbourne, Australia in a fortnight’s time.

Gasly and Carlos Sainz were the only two drivers to set their fastest laps on the C5 soft tyre, with many of the lap times achieved on either C3 or C4 tyres, aside from Cadillac’s Sergio Perez whose quickest lap time was done on the hard C1 tyres.