Antonelli leads Russell in Mercedes 1-2 on day three

Mercedes reaffirmed belief that it is the team to beat in Formula 1 this year after Andrea Kimi Antonelli topped a Silver Arrows 1-2 on the final day of this week’s 2026 Bahrain pre-season test. 

The 19-year-old set a 1m33.669s, which was 0.249s quicker than team-mate George Russell, who topped the morning session before Antonelli jumped in the W17 post-lunch. 

So, it was the perfect way for Mercedes to overcome a somewhat underwhelming day on Thursday, given a power unit issue ruled out Antonelli for much of the morning running. 

Nevertheless, the pair were the only drivers to go sub 1m34s this week amid widespread belief that the German marque heads into 2026’s regulation change as favourite for the championship.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has done his best to dispute that tag though, arguing that Red Bull is actually the benchmark, but one team that has gone under the radar in Bahrain is Ferrari.

Yet the Scuderia had a productive Friday as Lewis Hamilton was the quickest non-Mercedes driver, setting a 1m34.209s in the morning leaving him 0.291s off Russell. Hamilton’s day ended 10 minutes early, however, as he went off at Turn 8 with what appeared to be a mechanical issue – a loss of fuel being the prime suspect. 

Although F1 managed to squeeze in some green flag running at the very end, it still didn’t threaten Hamilton’s position as Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen remained fourth and fifth respectively, 0.880s and 1.672s off Antonelli – with both times set during the afternoon.

Verstappen’s new team-mate Isack Hadjar was sixth, while Esteban Ocon (Haas), Franco Colapinto (Alpine), Oliver Bearman (Haas) and Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) completed the top 10.

Lap times aren’t the only thing to analyse in testing, however, as mileage is just as important – if not more. And Piastri completed the most tours of the Bahrain circuit with 161.

That was the most any driver has completed in one day this week and Hamilton (150), Colapinto (144), plus Liam Lawson (119) were the others to hit a century on Friday. 

They were obviously helped by running the whole day though, rather than splitting duties with their team-mate. Even so, McLaren still completed the most mileage of any team ahead of Ferrari.

Williams came third on that leaderboard with 146 laps, with Haas fourth (145), Alpine fifth (144) and Mercedes sixth (139), who could have been higher had Antonelli not missed the opening 90 minutes of the afternoon.

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images

Towards the bottom, trouble continued to hit Aston Martin and newcomer Cadillac, which caused the first of two red flags as a cooling issue forced Valtteri Bottas to stop inside the opening hour.

It then took the team nearly two hours to send him back out, leaving it with just 105 laps on Friday while Aston only completed 72 tours. That’s because of an unspecified issue, which kept Lance Stroll out for much of the afternoon running.

This was the first of two official pre-season tests for 2026, with drivers returning to Bahrain for another three-day session on 18-20 February before the Melbourne opener in March.

F1 Bahrain pre-season test – Day 3 

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