All 11 teams returned to the Bahrain International Circuit for Day 2 of testing for the 2026 season.
AM Session
Testing day 2 started with a red flag for Perez. He had stopped his Cadillac in the middle of Turn 10,12 minutes into the session, 5 minutes after he had left the pit lane.
Kimi Antonelli completed three laps this morning before his Mercedes suffered some issues due to an engine problem. He didn’t return to the track for the rest of the session.
Hadjar was expected to complete the morning session, but due to a hydraulics leak overnight, he did not make it to the track until the very end of the session to complete one lap before returning to the pit lane.
Considering Hadjars successful run yesterday, this surely isn’t making an optimistic impression on the team so far.
Ferrari made the most of the morning session with Leclerc reaching 60 laps. Another team who made the most of today’s morning session are Williams. Following their absence in Barcelona, Albon took to the track this morning to complete 62 laps.
The morning session came to an end with Leclerc setting the fastest time of 1:34.273. Norris came in second fastest, 0.511s behind Leclerc, however the Brit completed 64 laps this morning – more than anyone else so far.
PM Session
The day continued this afternoon with Bottas taking over the Cadillac duties from Perez, with hopes to add to the already complete 42 laps. Norris and Leclerc continued their runs in the second half of the day.
After one lap this morning, Hadjar too his Red Bull to the track to finally set some times. However, there was still no sign of Russell’s Mercedes.
Over an hour into the afternoon session, the Mercedes made their return to the track. George Russell shows his speed as he put the car into third place.
An hour and a half into the session, a red flag was thrown due to debris from the Cadillac of Bottas. Shortly after, another red flag was shown as Gasly stopped on the track. This was caused by the Alpine pulling off to the side down the pit lane.
Hadjar spent the afternoon making up for the time the Red Bull team lost this morning. He completed a total of 87 laps today.
The Ferrari of Leclerc and the Williams of Sainz tested out ‘battle’-like scenarios on the track, this sort of action is beneficial to both teams. They will be able to use that data to start to understand how the car preforms in a race situation.
Similarly, Norris was following his fellow Brit George Russell, around the track until he locked up into Turn 10 when it almost went wrong. To complete the day, drivers took to the grid to practice starts.
Chequered Flag
Charles Leclerc set the best time of the day – and testing so far. His best time was a 1:34.273. The final results is as shown:
