F1 Bahrain pre-season testing live commentary and updates - day 2
Follow along for updates on the second day of F1's 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain
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This brings our live commentary to a close, with more articles coming up tonight on Autosport and Motorsport.
Thank you for joining us, we'll be back tomorrow as teams continue to fine-tune their cars ahead of the new F1 season!
Bear with us as we have bombshell quotes from Max Verstappen coming up...
And that's the end of the second day in Bahrain!
Yellow flag as cars perform some practice starts.
The perfect time to read this article: Why race starts may be chaotic in early rounds of F1 2026
Whoops. Lindblad exited the pits when the light was red.
No doubt that'll be worth a slap on the wrist.
Current lap count:
McLaren - 149 laps (Norris)
Ferrari - 139 laps (Leclerc)
Racing Bulls - 133 laps (Lawson 50, Lindblad 83)
Haas - 130 laps (Bearman)
Williams - 131 laps (Albon 62, Sainz 69)
Audi - 114 laps (Hulkenberg 47, Bortoleto 67)
Cadillac - 109 laps (Perez 42, Bottas 67)
Aston Martin - 98 laps (Alonso)
Alpine - 97 laps (Gasly)
Red Bull - 87 laps (Hadjar)
Mercedes - 57 laps (Antonelli 3, Russell 54)
"The livery designer of the Benetton meant to miss the R, it was to keep the correct letter count for replaced sponsor Mild Seven," zosim pointed out regarding the B195.
To be fair, we were going for a pun with this site's name (Motorsport, unless you're reading this on Autosport), but it fell flat. Sorry about that.
Red flag – again, just a test.
Virtual safety car – just a test.
Now that's slightly more niche: Aelfwald has brought up the Ligier JS39/JS39B, which was raced by Martin Brundle, Mark Blundell, Eric Bernard and Olivier Panis in 1993 and 1994, with five podium finishes – not bad for midfield machinery.
But did you know it was tested by Michael Schumacher?
Michael Schumacher tests the Ligier JS39B Renault to evaluate the Renault V10 engine
Photo by: Sutton Images
Back in Bahrain, plenty of lock-ups in Turn 1 and mostly Turn 10, including for Aston Martin's Alonso, who is engaging in lappery again.
PodiumPowerX, meanwhile, referenced the title-winning Benetton B195.
Unfortunately, the livery designer omitted an R on the rear wing.
Michael Schumacher, Benetton B195 Renault
Photo by: Motorsport Images
bastos76's favourite Renault-powered car is the Lotus 98T, which Ayrton Senna drove to two grand prix victories in 1986, against the dominant Williams and McLaren cars.
Ayrton Senna, Lotus 98T
Photo by: Motorsport Images
A big lock-up by Norris in Turn 10 as he encounters traffic ahead of him.
To be fair, this has been a tricky spot for most, if not all, drivers and cars.
It looks like we have recovered (mostly) functional live timing, so here's the latest lap count.
McLaren - 138 laps (Norris)
Ferrari - 127 laps (Leclerc)
Racing Bulls - 122 laps (Lawson 50, Lindblad 72)
Haas - 118 laps (Bearman)
Williams - 118 laps (Albon 62, Sainz 56)
Audi - 103 laps (Hulkenberg 47, Bortoleto 56)
Alpine - 97 laps (Gasly)
Cadillac - 96 laps (Perez 42, Bottas 54)
Aston Martin - 94 laps (Alonso)
Red Bull - 75 laps (Hadjar)
Mercedes - 53 laps (Antonelli 3, Russell 50)
Controversial indeed, Ed. An underwhelming livery to put it kindly, when its winter version was so pretty. This specific picture does not do justice to what actually was a vibrant shade of dark blue.
Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault R27
Photo by: Sutton Images
In terms of favourite Renault-powered cars, I'm going to be controversial and say the R27 from 2007.
Heikki Kovalainen, Renault R27
Photo by: Sutton Images
We do know, however, Russell has taken third place back from Bearman, with a 1m35.466s – 1.2s off the pace.
Live timing has been acting up for 30 minutes or so, hence why track-related updates have been scarcer of late. Our apologies.
formeleinsbharg brought up the RE40, which Alain Prost so nearly drove to the world championship. The Frenchman led the standings but retired with turbo issues in the title decider.
To be fair, Brabham's Nelson Piquet was leading, so probably would have prevailed anyway.
Alain Prost, Renault RE40 V6
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Several of you want to give the early Renaults some love.
"How about the Yellow Teapot of 1977? The car that heralded the start of an era-defining, er..era in F1?" says thebeastitcomethdown.
It indeed is iconic as the first turbocharged F1 car, even though it failed to win due to its chronic unreliability.
Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Renault RS01
Photo by: Sutton Images
Meanwhile, Bearman has jumped Russell for third. The Haas driver is 1.5s down on Leclerc's benchmark.
Formula1man suggests another Renault, the R26.
A beautiful one, I agree – and it partook in a superb title duel between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher.
Fernando Alonso, Renault R26
Photo by: Sutton Images
Lap count update:
McLaren - 105 laps (Norris)
Haas - 104 laps (Bearman)
Racing Bulls - 104 laps (Lawson 50, Lindblad 54)
Alpine - 97 laps (Gasly)
Williams - 96 laps (Albon 62, Sainz 34)
Ferrari - 94 laps (Leclerc)
Aston Martin - 84 laps (Alonso)
Audi - 83 laps (Hulkenberg 47, Bortoleto 36)
Cadillac - 81 laps (Perez 42, Bottas 39)
Red Bull - 58 laps (Hadjar)
Mercedes - 30 laps (Antonelli 3, Russell 27)
What's your favourite Renault-powered F1 car?
I already mentioned the FW19 two weeks ago when we were discussing Williams machinery, so how about the Renault R23? I quite liked the team's pre-Telefonica livery.
Heikki Kovalainen, Renault R23
Photo by: Motorsport Images
As Jose Carlos de Celis and Ed Hardy put it, this casts another cloud over the future of Renault's Viry-Chatillon base, which has been in doubt since the F1 power unit project was scrapped.
The mayor of Viry-Chatillon caught wind of Renault's aforementioned decisions before they were announced, and he was incensed.
Speaking of France, here's some arguably bad news from the Renault group.
Dacia is exiting the World Rally-Raid Championship, with Alpine ending its WEC Hypercar project.
Another new benchmark for the Frenchman: 1m37.774s.
Hadjar improves to a 1m38.018s.
Here's a personal best for Hadjar, a 1m38.104s on hard tyres. That's obviously nowhere near the Red Bull's potential.
dammski2 inquires about the PIT number on our live timing. That's the number of times each car has gone through the pitlane.
Leclerc makes it nine cars on track. Exciting!
McLaren, Mercedes, Haas, Audi, Red Bull, Racing Bulls, Cadillac and Williams are back on track.
We're just missing Ferrari, Aston Martin and (predictably) Alpine.
The session has resumed, again. Two hours to go.
Lap count update:
Alpine - 97 laps (Gasly)
Haas - 92 laps (Bearman)
McLaren - 88 laps (Norris)
Racing Bulls - 87 laps (Lawson 50, Lindblad 37)
Williams - 83 laps (Albon 62, Sainz 21)
Ferrari - 80 laps (Leclerc)
Aston Martin - 77 laps (Alonso)
Audi - 72 laps (Hulkenberg 47, Bortoleto 25)
Cadillac - 64 laps (Perez 42, Bottas 22)
Red Bull - 41 laps (Hadjar)
Mercedes - 19 laps (Antonelli 3, Russell 16)
This is the third time the Alpine has caused a red flag since the Barcelona shakedown began. The other Mercedes-powered outfits don't seem to have as many issues, though the works squad obviously lost a lot of time this morning.
The Alpine ground to a halt in the run-off inside Turn 1.
By: Autosport Staff
