George Russell, Mercedes, Bahrain International Circuit, 2026 pre-season test

George Russell drew a line under Mercedes’ difficult start to testing in Bahrain by setting the fastest time of the week so far on day three.

His lap of 1’33.918 was the first time anyone had completed the Bahrain International Circuit in less than 94 seconds in one of the new cars. It left him just over four seconds shy of last year’s pole position time.

However Russell had Lewis Hamilton for company at the top of the times. The Ferrari driver got within three tenths of a second of his former team mate’s benchmark. That left him a second ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.

No one else got within two seconds of Russell’s time over the first four hours. Oliver Bearman put Haas fourth in the times sheets ahead of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren.

It was a productive morning as almost every driver completed more than a 57-lap race distance. The two exceptions were found at the bottom of the times sheets: Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas. The latter caused the only red flag of the session so far when his Cadillac came to a stop.

Test two, day three midday results

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLaps
163George RussellMercedesW171’33.91878
244Lewis HamiltonFerrariSF-261’34.2090.29169
33Max VerstappenRed BullRB221’35.3411.42361
487Oliver BearmanHaasVF-261’35.9722.05470
581Oscar PiastriMcLarenMCL401’36.3902.47273
643Franco ColapintoAlpineA5261’36.8742.95664
755Carlos Sainz JnrWilliamsFW481’37.1863.26868
830Liam LawsonRacing Bulls031’37.2383.32084
95Gabriel BortoletoAudiR261’37.5363.61860
1018Lance StrollAston MartinAMR261’38.4234.50554
1177Valtteri BottasCadillac1’38.7724.85437

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