Antonelli and Mercedes top final day of first pre-season test in Bahrain

Kimi Antonelli led team mate George Russell as Mercedes locked out the top two positions on the timing screens across the third and final day of 2026’s opening pre-season test in Bahrain.

After Russell topped Friday morning’s session with a time of 1m 33.918s, Antonelli lowered the benchmark to a 1m 33.669s during the afternoon, despite losing further running while Mercedes worked on the W17.

Lewis Hamilton was next up via a full day at the wheel of the new Ferrari, posting a best time just over half a second slower than Antonelli, and working his way through a series of longer runs before stopping on track in the closing minutes.

Also on track for both the morning and afternoon sessions was McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended the day fourth overall, ahead of Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar – the latter making plenty of positive noises about the team’s new power unit.

Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman split the day for Haas en route to seventh and ninth respectively, sandwiching the Alpine of Franco Colapinto, while Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10 positions for the arriving Audi operation.

With the field continuing to understand their 2026 challengers, Alex Albon was one of several drivers seen locking up heavily and running off the track in the closing stages of the day, placing 11th over Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Williams team mate Carlos Sainz.

Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto was next up in 14th, from Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll – who believes his squad are around four-and-a-half seconds off the pace as things stand – and Cadillac pair Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.

Bottas triggered a red flag early in the day when the Cadillac ground to a halt, but mechanics were able to rectify the issue and send him back out, before team mate Perez took over for the afternoon and got more than a race distance under his belt.

In terms of mileage, Piastri, Hamilton, Colapinto and Lawson enjoyed particularly productive days – the McLaren man charging past 150 laps, while Hamilton (prior to his aforementioned late stoppage), Colapinto and Lawson all ticked off more than two race distances.

With the first of two Bahrain tests coming to a close, drivers and teams will now spend a few days digging through the data before returning to the same Sakhir venue for the final pre-season gathering from February 18-20.