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 number Driver Team Model Best time Gap Laps
1 63 George Russell Mercedes W17 1’33.918 78
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari SF-26 1’34.209 0.291 69
3 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull RB22 1’35.341 1.423 61
4 87 Oliver Bearman Haas VF-26 1’35.972 2.054 70
5 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren MCL40 1’36.390 2.472 73
6 43 Franco Colapinto Alpine A526 1’36.874 2.956 64
7 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Williams FW48 1’37.186 3.268 68
8 30 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 03 1’37.238 3.320 84
9 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi R26 1’37.536 3.618 60
10 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin AMR26 1’38.423 4.505 54
11 77 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 1’38.772 4.854 37

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