Ferrari begins final day of Bahrain F1 test fastest as Mercedes causes red flag
Ferrari led the way in the first session of Friday’s Bahrain test
Ferrari and Charles Leclerc topped the opening session of the final day of the Bahrain Formula 1 test, as a Mercedes issue caused a red flag.
Despite playing down its form over the pre-season so far, Mercedes ended the first test in Bahrain fastest of all and topped Wednesday and Thursday’s running this week.
Mercedes hasn’t been without its technical issues in testing, but it suffered its first on-track breakdown of the pre-season on Friday with Andrea Kimi Antonelli behind the wheel.
Antonelli’s car came to a halt on the straight between Turns 10 and 11 with just under two hours to go, which brought out a red flag.
The car was recovered quickly, but Antonelli didn’t come out again across the remainder of the first session. Mercedes diagnosed the issue as a loss of pneumatic pressure.
He will not drive the car again until FP1 in Melbourne on 6 March.
Ferrari had no such issues, with Charles Leclerc putting 80 laps on the SF-26 across the first four hours of running on Friday.
The Monegasque took over top spot on the timesheets inside the first hour with a 1m33.689s and would not be bested by anyone by the chequered flag.
LIVE: Updates from the final day of Bahrain F1 testing
Antonelli held onto second with a 1m33.916s after 49 laps, with the Italian handing over driving duties to George Russell for session two.
Oscar Piastri was third in the McLaren, 0.663s off the pace after 66 laps, while Esteban Ocon once again showed strong pace from the Haas.
He completed the most laps of anyone in session one with 82 tours. Isack Hadjar was fifth in the Red Bull after 59 laps.
Pierre Gasly was sixth for Alpine ahead of Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad, while Carlos Sainz (Williams), Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) and Cadillac’s Sergio Perez.
Cadillac had a slow start to Friday’s running, but Perez was able to put in 61 laps.
Aston Martin suffered another miserable session this pre-season, as its Honda-powered AMR26 managed just two laps.
Lance Stroll was confined to pitlane for almost the entirety of session one after Honda due to a battery issue that struck Fernando Alonso on Thursday.
Honda has been running simulations at its Sakura base, which has conspired with a lack of power unit parts to force Aston into doing only short stints on the final day.
Testing continues at 12pm local time.
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