Lando Norris, McLaren, Bahrain International Circuit, 2026 pre-season test

Lando Norris set the fastest lap time of testing so far, albeit by a tiny margin, as the penultimate day of running began in Bahrain.

The McLaren driver lapped the Bahrain Internatnional Circuit in 1’33.453, just six-thousandths of a second faster than George Russell managed in his Mercedes the day before.

But the most eye-catching development came from the team which covered the fewest laps. Lewis Hamilton only did five tours of the track in his Ferrari, but he revealed a striking new development on the SF-26’s active aerodynamics. Its rear wing element now rotates completely upside-down when activated.

However Hamilton spent much of the first four hours in the garage as Ferrari investigated a problem with his car.

Max Verstappen, the only driver who did not run yesterday, returned to the cockpit of Red Bull’s RB22 and reeled off 56 laps. He also lowered the team’s best lap time of the test to a 1’33.584, just a tenth of a second off the overall bests by McLaren and Mercedes.

Russell did not match his best time from the day before but covered the greatest distance of any driver, putting another 77 laps on his W17. Alexander Albon was next in the Williams, but again lagged a second behind.

Racing Bulls and Audi also had less productive mornings as neither Liam Lawson nor Gabriel Bortoleto made it as far as 30 laps.

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLaps
11Lando NorrisMcLarenMCL401’33.45372
23Max VerstappenRed BullRB221’33.5840.13156
363George RussellMercedesW171’34.1110.65877
423Alexander AlbonWilliamsFW481’35.1301.67771
55Gabriel BortoletoAudiR261’35.2631.81029
687Oliver BearmanHaasVF-261’35.2791.82669
743Franco ColapintoAlpineA5261’35.5062.05354
830Liam LawsonRacing Bulls031’36.9593.50627
914Fernando AlonsoAston MartinAMR261’37.4724.01940
1044Lewis HamiltonFerrariSF-261’39.6706.2175
1177Valtteri BottasCadillac1’40.1936.74058

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