Charles Leclerc significantly impressed by topping the final morning of pre-season testing for the 2026 Formula 1 campaign, while further problems struck Aston Martin in Bahrain.
The Ferrari driver set a 1m33.689s lap on the C3 tyre inside the opening hour, and that is the third session Leclerc has topped across the last two weeks.
Alongside going fastest, the Monegasque completed the second-most mileage on Friday morning with 80 laps of the Sakhir venue, which included a full race simulation midway through.
During the race sim, he used both the medium and hard tyres on what was the second day of Ferrari running its unique rear wing, which has a 180-degree rotating upper flap.
It’s fair to say that that’s been the talk of testing this week, but in terms of the actual leaderboard, Leclerc was 0.227s quicker than Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli in second.
The 19-year-old also set his fastest lap on the C3, but he completed a lowly 49 tours after causing the only red flag as he pulled off between Turns 10 and 11 midway through.
Autosport understands that Antonelli suffered a loss of pneumatic pressure, causing the Silver Arrows to change its power unit, so he didn’t return for the remaining 100 minutes.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images
The top three was then rounded out by Oscar Piastri, who was 0.663s off Leclerc after setting his lap on the C4 while completing 66 laps in the McLaren – the joint fourth-most of the morning.
Next was Esteban Ocon, who impressed for Haas by completing the most mileage with 82 laps while being just under two tenths shy of Piastri on the prototype tyre.
Isack Hadjar completed the top five for Red Bull, 0.822s behind Leclerc, while Pierre Gasly, Arvid Lindblad, Carlos Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez all respectively rounded out the top 10.
Rock-bottom was Lance Stroll for Aston Martin, which continued its horror pre-season test by only completing two laps this morning due to a parts shortage with its Honda power unit.
It came after Stroll suffered an engine problem on Wednesday, before soon spinning out with what also looked like a technical fault. Fernando Alonso suffered a similar power unit issue on Thursday, so Stroll did not hit the track until the final 15-20 minutes on Friday morning.
The session then ended with the routine system checks that the FIA introduced on Wednesday. Lando Norris, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Lindblad, Stroll, Oliver Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto, Gasly and Valtteri Bottas will all contest this afternoon’s session, where more performance runs and glory laps are expected.
F1 Bahrain pre-season testing – Day 6 morning results
| Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Best Lap |
Gap |
Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:33.689 | — | 80 |
| 2 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1:33.916 | +0.227 | 49 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1:34.352 | +0.663 | 66 |
| 4 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | 1:34.494 | +0.805 | 82 |
| 5 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | 1:34.511 | +0.822 | 59 |
| 6 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1:34.846 | +1.157 | 57 |
| 7 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | 1:35.238 | +1.549 | 77 |
| 8 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 1:35.252 | +1.563 | 66 |
| 9 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | 1:36.019 | +2.330 | 64 |
| 10 | Sergio Pérez | Cadillac | 1:40.842 | +7.153 | 61 |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | — | — | 2 |
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– The Autosport.com Team
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