A stricken Aston Martin caused a red flag for the second consecutive day of Formula 1’s final 2026 Bahrain pre-season test.
Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin had had a strange spin into the gravel on the exit of the Turn 11 left-hander during the first morning of the second Bahrain test on Wednesday.
And towards the end of the first hour of the second Thursday session, the Aston Martin ground to a halt on the exit of the Turn 4 right-hander, with Fernando Alonso at the wheel.
Alonso had completed 40 laps in the first Thursday session and was 28 laps into the second session before his stoppage.
He was in the middle of a race simulation, with a first stint average of 1m43.404s on C2s, and a second stint average of a 1m41.492s on C1s, before it was interrupted by his issue.
His pace in the race sim compared somewhat favourably - though not overwhelmingly so - to Cadillac's from the morning (with Valtteri Bottas behind the wheel), but Liam Lawson in the Racing Bulls, executing his own race sim at the same time as Alonso, appeared well over a second per lap faster.
Alonso was 12th on the timesheet, with a fastest lap of the day 4.028s than Max Verstappen's new test benchmark, set in the first hour of the second session.
This latest setback comes amid a torturous pre-season for Aston Martin, which is severely lacking both pace and reliability.
