BAHRAN TEST TWO – George Russell fastest on opening day, a hundredth faster than Oscar Piastri
George Russell was fastest on the first day of the third test at the Bahrain International Circuit. The Mercedes driver set a 33.459 to go a hundredth faster than Oscar Piastri. The top two set their fastest times during the afternoon session to push the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc off the top spot by a quarter of a second.
Russell’s time was better than the fastest time set during last week’s first test by just over two tenths, set by teammate Kimi Antonelli on Friday, set during what will be the qualifying hour for the Grand Prix that allowed him to pip Piastri, who led for much of the afternoon.
During that qualifying hour, some teams on the seventh day of running this year started to do their first real performance running, while others looked at running in dirty air as they simulated race stints.
Leclerc, who had topped the morning session, set a 33.799, which at the lunch break had put him just over two tenths faster than Lando Norris. As he edged out Piastri, they had the better of the conditions during the afternoon/evening session. It wasn’t a trouble-free day for Ferrari; Lewis Hamilton lost over a third of his stint with a technical issue.
Norris was fourth on the overall time sheet, the world champion half a second off the headline time, but at the end of his stint was second. Norris was seven-tenths ahead of fellow morning runner Antonelli. Isack Hadjar was the only full-day runner, but he only managed sixty-six laps as he went nearly a tenth and a half off Antonelli.
Hadjar put the Red Bull four hundredths faster than Hamilton, but his running is half what would have been expected for a full day in the car. The Frenchman’s morning session was restricted to just thirteen laps due to a technical issue related to the engine’s coolant circuits.
As feared by a number of midfielders, the gap to the top teams remained substantial. Carlos Sainz was eighth, the Williams driver over eight tenths behind Hamilton an over a second and a half behind pace setter Russell. Franco Colapinto was ninth in the Alpine, going six tenths faster than Gabriel Bortoleto as they completed the top ten.
Alex Albon put his Williams eleventh; he missed the top ten by half a second, as he went half a second faster than Liam Lawson, with Ollie Bearman a quarter of a tenth further behind. Pierre Gasly was thirteenth.
Lance Stroll got Aston Martin’s afternoon programme underway, but a technical issue saw him spin off at Turn Ten, looking more like a technical fault than a driving mistake. The team lost another hour and a half, so the AMR26 completed just 54 laps today. However, they were two seconds faster than last week.
Esteban Ocon was between the Astons; he was four and a half tenths behind Stroll and a tenth faster than Fernando Alonso. Nico Hulkenberg put his Audi just under wo thousandths faster than Arvid Lindblad. The Cadillac pair of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez rounded out the order.
F1 newest team once more challenged by reliability problems as Sergio Perez managed just twenty-four laps in the morning, but they did at least finish the day on track as Valtteri Bottas added thirty-five laps.
The day ended with a trial of a new start procedure amid concerns the new power units for 2026 require more time to be prepared for lights out than the previous guidelines allowed for. An additional five-second pause was added between the last car lining up on the grid and the start light procedure beginning.
Off track, a meeting of the F1 Commission proposed closing a loophole regarding the compression ratio limit, which would be implemented in Zandvoort in August, after Mercedes found an advantage.
While the current regulations mean the compression ratio is only measured when cars are stationary at ambient temperature, technically allowing them to exceed it when running on track, the proposal is for a new system that would also provide a measurement when the engine is at operating temperature.
The proposal has been presented to the power unit manufacturers – Mercedes, Red Bull/Ford, Ferrari, Honda and Audi, as well as Liberty Media and the FIA, to vote one, with a super majority needed for the new test to be implemented at the start of August.
Related
- BAHRAIN TEST ONE – Kimi Antonelli leads Mercedes one-two by a quarter of a second on final day
- BAHRAIN TEST ONE – Charles Leclerc fastest on the second day, half a second ahead of Lando Norris
- BAHRAIN TEST ONE – Lando Norris fastest by over a tenth on the opening day of testing
- PRIXVIEW – Bahrain Pre-Season Tests