Russell tops Piastri, more Aston issues as final F1 pre-season test begins

George Russell set the fastest time of the opening day of the final test in Bahrain by just 0.010s ahead of Oscar Piastri, as Aston Martin suffered more issues.

Mercedes had a problematic first two days of testing last week but finished strongly on Friday and picked up where it left off as both Kimi Antonelli – driving in the morning – and Russell covered strong mileage. With 145 laps between them, the Mercedes pair had the highest lap count as every team except Red Bull split drivers across the day.

After a race simulation, Russell took to the track for a qualifying-style run in the final half hour and posted a 1m33.459s to just beat Piastri’s time – set 90 minutes earlier on the same C3 compound tire – by 0.010s. Piastri managed 70 laps of his own after taking over from teammate Lando Norris, who was fourth fastest, 0.593s off Russell’s pace.

Between the two McLarens was Charles Leclerc who was also on track in the morning, matching Piastri’s mileage and posting a 1m33.739s to end up third overall after being fastest before the lunch break. Like the rest of the top five, the Ferrari driver used the C3 tire, although the full Pirelli range is available to teams this week and the softer C4 was also tested by a few drivers.

Cars looked largely more compliant – particularly at the tricky Turn 10 that features turning and braking – and lap times for many near the top of the times were around half a second quicker than each driver registered during the first week in Bahrain, although Antonelli didn’t trouble his previous best as he ended up fifth ahead of Isack Hadjar.

After a fluid leak limited his morning running, the latest Red Bull driver had been looking to improve beyond his 1m34.260s but aborted his first attempt late in the day before switching to a longer run, with 10 of the 11 drivers then taking to the track for a new start procedure to end running.

In an attempt to address concerns over the amount of time it takes to get the turbo spinning for a launch, the FIA carried out an aborted start with an extra formation lap, then allowed a small delay before starting the light sequence. In far better scenes than last week, all 10 cars were ready to move at the same time and reacted to the lights, although there were clear discrepancies between launches.

The only car not taking part was the Aston Martin, with Lance Stroll’s running ended early. Stroll caused the only red flag of the day when he had a strange spin into Turn 11, losing the rear as soon as he tried to downshift and sliding into the gravel. While Aston Martin got him back on track late in the day, his tally of 26 laps was light, particularly when paired with the 28 completed by Fernando Alonso.

Aston will need to gain significant mileage over the coming two days, but did show flashes of more pace as Stroll’s 1m35.974s was over two seconds quicker than either driver posted a week ago.

The first week of testing had suggested the top four teams from last year are still leading the way under the new regulations, and that was further backed up by all seven drivers to run from Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull occupying the top seven positions. They were also all covered by just 0.8s, with a further gap of 0.8s from Lewis Hamilton in seventh to Carlos Sainz in eighth.

Sainz’s time of 1m35.113s again marked a significant step forward from last week’s test, lowering Williams’ best by 1.5 seconds as it makes up for missing out on the Barcelona shakedown.

A relatively solid afternoon for Audi – Gabriel Bortoleto completing 71 laps, setting the 10th-fastest time and going a second quicker than seen before with a 1m35.263s – was not matched by Cadillac, as the American team suffered sensor issues that kept Sergio Perez in the garage for more than an hour to start the day.

When Perez did emerge he was limited to 24 laps due to a loss of telemetry that impacted his tire evaluation running, while Valtteri Bottas then completed some performance and aero testing but also only added 35 laps on a disjointed day for the new constructor.