Charles Leclerc ended the second day of Formula 1 2026 testing at Bahrain with the fastest time as seven teams completed more than 100 laps.
Leclerc's best time - and his advantage over his nearest rival - was actually carried over from the morning session, his 1m34.273s for Ferrari leaving him half a second clear of McLaren's Lando Norris.
Leclerc's time was set on the softest C3 compound, as was every other driver's except for Norris's - he and McLaren did much of their running on the C2 tyre.
Those two, and third-fastest Ollie Bearman, all cleared 100 laps individually for the day, with Norris completing a day-high total of 149 laps, 10 ahead of Leclerc.
Bearman, who improved to third with just over half an hour of the session remaining, completed 130 laps for Haas.
Frustratingly, the most day's most representative long-run data was missed during an apparent timing blackout that continued into the final hour. That included top two Leclerc and Norris completing around 30 laps each.
Mercedes at least recovered some running after a sluggish start, with George Russell completing 54 laps and ending the day with the fourth-fastest time.
Kimi Antonelli had already been limited to just 30 laps on day one but had an even bigger setback on Thursday as he completed just three in the W17 without recording a time.
Isack Hadjar logged even fewer laps than Antonelli in the first session - just one installation lap, in the final minute - but had registered 87 by the end of his full day in the Red Bull.
He ended the day with the fifth-fastest time, 2.2s off Leclerc and just ahead of Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto.
Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll gave a bleak assessment of the team's position by claiming it looked like it was as much as four and a half seconds off F1's best teams right now.
He wasn't in the car on Thursday, but team-mate Fernando Alonso's times were in line with that assessment: Alonso was 4.687s off in the morning and though he improved his time in the final hour, he still only just got inside four seconds of Leclerc with a best time of 1m38.248s.
Alonso did attempt one further push lap inside the final 25 minutes that but a big lock-up at Turn 10 put paid to any chances of an improvement.
This was nevertheless Aston Martin's highest mileage total of testing so far, as Alonso managed 98 laps in the AMR26.
In total, five red flags were shown on Thursday - though two of these were procedural so FIA systems could be checked.
The Cadillac duo - Sergio Perez when he stopped at Turn 10 inside the first hour, Valtteri Bottas when a mirror fell off his car - were responsible for two of the other three, and Pierre Gasly also caused a brief red-flag period when his Alpine ground to a halt on the approach to the first corner.
Gasly did not return to the track after that, so Alpine ended up just short of 100 laps - he'd clocked 97 prior to that.
Perez ended up at the tail of the order, 4.380s off the pace, but Bottas leapt up the order late on and set the eighth-fastest time, 2.551s off.
They also cleared 100 laps for the day between them, with Audi, Williams and Racing Bulls the others to do so aside from the aforementioned McLaren, Ferrari and Haas.
Day two times
1 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m34.273s 139 laps
2 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.511s 149 laps
3 Oliver Bearman (Haas) +1.121s 130 laps
4 George Russell (Mercedes) +1.193s 54 laps
5 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +2.288s 87 laps
6 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +2.397s 67 laps
7 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +2.450s 97 laps
8 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +2.551s 67 laps
9 Alexander Albon (Williams) +2.956s 62 laps
10 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +2.993s 47 laps
11 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +3.197s 83 laps
12 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +3.319s 69 laps
13 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +3.744s 50 laps
14 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +3.975s 98 laps
15 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +4.380s 42 laps
N/A Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 3 laps
