Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the fastest driver in the first half of the opening day of Formula 1’s first 2026 Bahrain pre-season test.
After its behind-closed-doors five-day Barcelona test (where teams could run on a maximum of three days each), F1’s first Bahrain test is the first time all 11 teams are sharing the track with their 2026 cars.
With the opening four hours done, it was Verstappen who was quickest, with a 1m35.433s, set during the second hour of the test on the medium tyres.
He clocked 65 laps aboard the RB22, more than a race distance (57 laps) at Bahrain Grand Prix venue Sakhir.
Verstappen was one of many drivers to start pushing the limits of his car, as he locked up at Turn 1 and went straight on with around an hour of the session to go.
His closest competitor on the leaderboard was McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who was 0.169s slower with 54 laps on the board.
George Russell was third for Mercedes, 0.675s adrift of Verstappen, but ahead of Barcelona test pacesetter Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari.
Hamilton ended up fourth on the timesheet after a late improvement, having made a trip to the escape road at the Turn 10 left-hander and spun at Turn 1 earlier in the session.
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Esteban Ocon was fifth for Haas ahead of Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, who ran a lengthy stint on softs early in the session, ending up with 75 laps on the board.
Having missed Barcelona, Williams made a solid start to testing in Bahrain with Carlos Sainz completing more laps than anyone else - 77 laps with the seventh best time, 2.788s off the pace.
Gabriel Bortoleto was eighth as Audi debuted some bold new sidepods and a reprofiled nose. He was 3.438s off Verstappen with 49 laps completed.
Franco Colapinto caused the only red flag when his Alpine stopped between Turns 7 and 8. He was able to rejoin the track later, but ended up 11th and slowest.
In between Bortoleto and Colapinto were the Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas and the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
Stroll was 4.450s adrift with 33 laps clocked up, as Aston Martin’s steady start to testing continued.
Bahrain test, day one am times
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m35.433s, 65 laps
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1m35.602s, 54 laps
- George Russell (Mercedes) 1m36.108s, 56 laps
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) 1m36.433s, 52 laps
- Esteban Ocon (Haas) 1m37.169s, 64 laps
- Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) 1m37.945s, 75 laps
- Carlos Sainz (Williams) 1m38.221s, 77 laps
- Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) 1m38.871s, 49 laps
- Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) 1m39.150s, 49 laps
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m39.883s, 33 laps
- Franco Colapinto (Alpine) 1m40.330s, 28 laps
