Norris leads from Verstappen on opening day

McLaren’s Lando Norris opened the book on the first day of official Formula 1 pre-season testing by going 0.129s faster than Max Verstappen, although the Red Bull driver completed more laps than McLaren managed all day.

Oscar Piastri set a best time of 1m35.602s over 54 laps in the morning, before Norris took over the MCL40 and set the fastest time of the day – 1m34.669s – in the afternoon while adding 58 laps to the car’s total. That is one more than a complete race distance at the Bahrain International Circuit. 

As was expected given the relative immaturity of the cars, the ‘green’ track surface, gusting winds, and the fact that many drivers were circulating laden with aerodynamic measuring equipment, early lap times offered little to excite. As some drivers began to push, there were several off-track excursions at Turn 10, largely attributed to the tailwind but also a factor of varying approaches to braking and energy harvesting.

Verstappen was fastest of all in the morning session, clocking 1m35.433s – considerably off Piastri’s 1m29.841s pole time from the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix. But what caught the eye – beyond Verstappen being the first driver of the day to reach the 100-lap mark – was the Red Bull’s apparent ability to deploy more electrical power than rivals over consecutive laps.

Ultimately, Verstappen reached the 136-lap mark, and his fastest of 1m34.798s – set during a seven-lap stint on soft tyres late in the afternoon – fell just 0.129s short of Norris.

Charles Leclerc’s best time for Ferrari was 0.521s off Norris but he turned 80 laps in what was a productive day for the Scuderia. Team-mate Lewis Hamilton turned the day’s seventh-fastest lap during the morning session while running 52 laps.

Esteban Ocon was the second busiest driver of the day, putting 115 laps on the Haas VF-26 and setting the fourth fastest time.

Mercedes, in the midst of a growing imbroglio over its power unit, flew under the radar as George Russell completed 56 laps in the morning with a fastest time that was 1.439s in arrears of Norris. Andrea Kimi Antonelli, running predominantly on the hard-compound Pirellis, was 2.960s off over 30 laps.

There was disappointment for Aston Martin as its AMR26 managed just 36 laps in total. Lance Stroll ran 33 tours in the morning session but parked up after just three more following the lunch break, when the team detected what it described as «a data anomaly» from the new Honda power unit. Stroll’s fastest lap of the day was a 1m39.883s.

Williams mitigated the disappointment of missing the Barcelona shakedown entirely by completing an impressive number of laps during the day. Carlos Sainz ran 77 laps in total during the morning, cumulatively more than a race distance. Team-mate Alex Albon did 68 in the afternoon.

Of the teams that had chosen to introduce development steps already – or reveal concepts they had previously wanted to conceal, Audi was the most conspicuous. Its R26 emerged from the garages with an entirely different sidepod treatment than that used on the show car at launch — or the one that ran in the Barcelona shakedown.

The car ran reliably in the morning as Gabriel Bortoleto put 49 laps on it, but then broke down with Nico Hulkenberg at the wheel just an hour into the afternoon session, bringing out the red flag. Hulkenberg returned to the track and eventually ran 73 laps. The only other stoppage of the day was induced by Franco Colapinto’s Alpine stuttering to a halt on track in the morning after turning 17 laps, but the issue was eventually fixed and Colapinto brought its total to 28 laps before handing over to Pierre Gasly.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

Cadillac also hit the track for the first time in its definitive two-tone livery as revealed during the Super Bowl half-time show at the weekend. Valtteri Bottas completed 49 laps in the morning before handing over to Sergio Perez, who did 58.

Arvid Lindblad, the only F1 rookie this season, completed 75 laps in the Racing Bulls VCARB 03 during the morning before it succumbed to a fluid leak.

F1 Bahrain pre-season test — Day 1 results

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