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 number Driver Team Model Best time Gap Laps
1 1 Lando Norris McLaren MCL40 1’33.453 72
2 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull RB22 1’33.584 0.131 56
3 63 George Russell Mercedes W17 1’34.111 0.658 77
4 23 Alexander Albon Williams FW48 1’35.130 1.677 71
5 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi R26 1’35.263 1.810 29
6 87 Oliver Bearman Haas VF-26 1’35.279 1.826 69
7 43 Franco Colapinto Alpine A526 1’35.506 2.053 54
8 30 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 03 1’36.959 3.506 27
9 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin AMR26 1’37.472 4.019 40
10 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari SF-26 1’39.670 6.217 5
11 77 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 1’40.193 6.740 58

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and

Formula 1

Browse all Formula 1 articles