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Motorsport

F1 2026 Bahrain pre-season test: Max Verstappen tops opening morning

Max Verstappen F1 Lewis Hamilton Oscar Piastri Ferrari Red Bull Williams Racing

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set the fastest time of Wednesday’s morning session in Formula 1’s Bahrain pre-season test.

Shortly before 12pm local time – with the test’s opening session taking place from 10am to 2pm – Verstappen set a 1m35.433s on soft tyres for Red Bull.

As F1 switches to new technical regulations, this time is five-and-a-half seconds slower than Oscar Piastri’s 2025 pole position, a 1m29.841s.

As it happened, Piastri took second place, just 0.169s away from Verstappen, in McLaren’s newly liveried MCL40.

Mercedes’ George Russell was third in 1m36.108s, with Lewis Hamilton in fourth, exactly one second slower than Verstappen. The Ferrari driver had a harmless spin in Turn 1.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari (Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images)

Esteban Ocon made up the top five for Haas, with a 1m37.169s. Teams weren’t seeking performance just yet, which explains the large gaps between cars.

Sixth- and seventh-placed Arvid Lindblad and Carlos Sainz covered more ground than anyone for Racing Bulls and Williams, with 75 and 77 laps respectively. This is a welcome boost for Williams, which had to skip the Barcelona shakedown two weeks ago due to delays in its new challenger’s production.

Gabriel Bortoleto took eighth position in a revamped Audi R26 featuring radical new sidepods, which you can read more about here.

Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll were ninth and 10th – another two cars whose liveries were recently revealed, with Adrian Newey’s new creation running bare at Barcelona due to its late arrival.

Alpine’s A526 caused the only red flag of the day when Franco Colapinto stopped on track. It’s 11th and last in 1m40.330s, with the lowest lap count of all – 28.

F1 Bahrain pre-season test Day 1 morning results

P	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	65	1m35.433s
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	54	1m35.602s	+0.169s
3	George Russell	Mercedes	56	1m36.108s	+0.675s
4	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	52	1m36.433s	+1.000s
5	Esteban Ocon	Haas	64	1m37.169s	+1.736s
6	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	75	1m37.945s	+2.512s
7	Carlos Sainz	Williams	77	1m38.221s	+2.788s
8	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	49	1m38.871s	+3.438s
9	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	49	1m39.150s	+3.717s
10	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	33	1m39.883s	+4.450s
11	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	28	1m40.330s	+4.897s