Testing report

F1 2026 Bahrain pre-season test: Charles Leclerc fastest as unreliability hits Mercedes, Red Bull

Leclerc set the fastest lap of the Bahrain test so far on Thursday morning

Charles Leclerc topped the second morning of Formula 1’s opening Bahrain pre-season test, as Mercedes and Red Bull were hit by reliability trouble alongside Cadillac.

About an hour and 15 minutes into the session, Leclerc drove Ferrari’s SF-26 to a 1m34.273s, which is four tenths faster than McLaren’s Lando Norris achieved on Wednesday.

Norris’ own 1m34.669s benchmark was set on medium tyres, however, while Leclerc turned to softs throughout this morning’s session. The Briton came second – again on mediums – with a 1m34.784s.

Every other car was at least 2.4s off the pace, which obviously isn’t representative of the pecking order but isn’t unrelated to the gremlins encountered by two favourites.

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Red Bull completed a single lap at the very end of the morning session, with the team understood to have found a hydraulic leak on the chassis during the car build yesterday. Isack Hadjar was supposed to run through the whole day, so the French sophomore will hope for a chance to catch up later.

At Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli managed just three laps before encountering a power unit issue that ruled him out of the remainder of the morning session. George Russell was supposed to take over for the afternoon.

Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Cadillac’s Sergio Perez caused a red flag on his first out-lap for an unspecified reason, but after the car was retrieved it swiftly joined the fray again.

Perez went on to complete 42 laps, with a personal reference of 1m38.653s, which was slower than anyone but Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in 1m38.960s.

Alpine was best of the rest with Pierre Gasly lapping in 1m36.723s, leading Oliver Bearman (Haas), Alexander Albon (Williams), Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) and Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls).

A Virtual Safety Car and red flag simulation was performed at the end of the session.

F1 Bahrain pre-season test Day 2 morning results

P	DRIVER	TEAM	time	GAP	LAPS
1	Leclerc	Ferrari	1:34.273		62
2	Norris	McLaren	1:34.784	+0.511	64
3	Gasly	Alpine	1:36.723	+2.450	61
4	Bearman	Haas	1:37.025	+2.752	55
5	Albon	Williams	1:37.229	+2.956	62
6	Hulkenberg	Audi	1:37.266	+2.993	47
7	Lawson	Racing Bulls	1:38.017	+3.744	50
8	Perez	Cadillac	1:38.653	+4.380	42
9	Alonso	Aston Martin	1:38.960	+4.687	55
10	Antonelli	Mercedes	-	-	3
11	Hadjar	Red Bull	-	-	1