2026 Bahrain F1 Testing | Day 1, Test 1 results - Motorsport

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Day 1 of test 1 at 2026 Bahrain F1 testing is in the books, view the full report and results below.

Red Bull Racing (Max Verstappen), Racing Bulls (Arvid Lindblad), Aston Martin (Lance Stroll) and Haas (Esteban Ocon) were the four teams who kept the same driver in all day.

During the morning session, Lewis Hamilton had a spin down at turn 1. Meanwhile, Franco Colapinto stopped before turn 8 with a car issue. The driver from Argentina only did 28 laps in the end.

In the morning segment, it was four-time World Champion Max Verstappen who ended up fastest. He logged a 1:35.433, 0.169s ahead of Oscar Piastri. George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon completed the top 5.

Problems for multiple teams

Racing Bulls had a very interrupted day as Arvid Lindblad did not return to the track in the afternoon due to a problem with the car.

It was a difficult day once again for Aston Martin as well. Lance Stroll’s AMR26 was stuck in the garage for a number of hours thanks to some gremlins.

Nico Hülkenberg caused a brief red flag as he stopped just before the pits. He had done two green sectors. Nonetheless he was back out on track pretty quickly.

Kimi Antonelli was also stuck in the garage for most of the second session.

In the PM session regarding lap time, Verstappen lowered the benchmark to a 1:34.830 on the C3 tyre. Defending World Champion Lando Norris went 2nd, 0.751s slower. He was on the C2 compound, posting a fastest final sector.

Before the final hour was reached, the Brit usurped the Dutchman. A 1:34.669 in his MCL40 on C2 tyres put him 0.151s clear. Charles Leclerc slotted into 3rd, 0.521s away from car #4.

Late in the day Max Verstappen went purple in sector 1 but ultimately fell 0.129s short of his British rival over the whole lap.