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2026 Formula 1 Bahrain Pre-Season 2
Feb 18, 2026 to Feb 20, 2026
| Bahrain International Circuit, BH
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Formula 1 Bahrain Pre-Season 2
F1 Bahrain pre-season testing live commentary and updates - day 6
Follow for updates of day six from F1 pre-season testing for the 2026 season in Bahrain
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08:32:37 am
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Stroll is running a Noah's Ark run plan. An out-lap and an in-lap. Two by two. It does mean he still hasn't produced a complete lap and therefore a lap time for the day.
What's worse, the car looks very on edge and jittery, just as it did this morning.
08:22:25 am
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Verstappen is straight into a long run on the C3s for Red Bull and is lapping consistently in the 1m38s, which gives all the hints of a race run.
Russell is spotted in the back of the Mercedes garage as the final prep work is completed on his car following the engine change.
Elsewhere, Sainz and Lindblad have come out together for Williams and Racing Bulls respectively.
08:17:32 am
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'mbcbriand' has asked for the lap count from this morning, so let's go one better. Here's the full results from this morning:
Pos
Driver
Team
Best Lap
Gap
Laps
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1m33.689s — 80 2 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1m33.916s +0.227s 49 3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1m34.352s +0.663s 66 4 Esteban Ocon Haas 1m34.494s +0.805s 82 5 Isack Hadjar Red Bull 1m34.511s +0.822s 59 6 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1m34.846s +1.157s 57 7 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls 1m35.238s +1.549s 77 8 Carlos Sainz Williams 1m35.252s +1.563s 66 9 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1m36.019s +2.330s 64 10 Sergio Pérez Cadillac 1m40.842s +7.153s 61 11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin — — 2
08:15:02 am
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Stroll's latest stint lasts two laps, which included a heavy lock up into Turn 10, before he pits again.
Verstappen has taken over from Hadjar at Red Bull and he's into the meat of his work already.
08:09:44 am
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Bearman breaks the track silence to venture out for Haas having taken over from Ocon. Stroll is the next to head out of the pits, aiming to collect as much data and mileage as possible for Aston Martin after being limited to two laps in the morning.
08:08:11 am
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A lot of chatter in the lunch break was again about how impressive Ferrari-powered drivers are at starts, while Mercedes-pedaling drivers appeared to be the ones struggling the most - we'll take Honda-powered cars out of the equation for now. Just another fascinating plot point to understand how the early races will unfold.
08:04:01 am
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No early takers, as is customary for the start of the afternoon. Mercedes is still completing a power unit change after Antonelli's earlier mechanical issue but as far as we know all other teams are preparing for action.
07:59:58 am
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The second and final driver press conference is just wrapping up as the green flag is readied to start the afternoon session. Race simulations and then quali-style laps will be the order of proceedings for most teams over the final four hours of testing.
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07:50:09 am
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Russell has also had his say on Red Bull’s energy deployment: “Their deployment definitely still looks the best on the grid, which is kudos to them and I think was a bit of a surprise to everybody. So I think let's see come Melbourne how things shake up. I think the Mercedes-powered teams have made a lot of improvements since day one of Bahrain last week, so that gap has closed drastically. But we're obviously day six of Bahrain tested now, whereas in Melbourne you've got three hours of practise and that's the main point of the concern.”
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
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07:46:31 am
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Russell on the difficult starts for Mercedes vs the rocket starts by Ferrari: “To win a race, you've also got to get off the line quite well. And I think the two starts I've made this week were worse than my worst ever start in Formula 1.
“Lewis down in P11 got into P1 [in the test start on Thursday]. So at this stage, I don't think it matters how quick you are. The thing that's going to trip you up is going to be that tallest hurdle.”
07:33:28 am
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Also keep your questions coming in about F1 pre-season testing and what you want to know as we head into the final four-hour session.
Video
07:23:27 am
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If you missed any of yesterday's action, here's a handy round-up as we wait to hear from the drivers during this lunch break.
Watch: Autosport Explains: F1 Testing Day 5
Breaking news
07:15:26 am
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Here's the full report on this morning's action:
Read Also:
07:14:06 am
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'Camsti' asks for the fastest lap times from Audi and Cadillac and if they appear competitive.
Audi's best lap time is Hulkenberg's 1m33.987s set yesterday.
Cadillac's best lap time is Perez's 1m35.369s set yesterday.
The outright best lap time in testing is Mercedes' 1m32.803s by Antonelli also set yesterday.
Audi around a second off is where we'd expect them to be, Cadillac being a further 1.5s behind isn't. But I don't think we've seen any quali-style runs from the US squad so far in testing.
Checkered flag
07:04:54 am
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The new-for-2026 pre-start sign appears before the five red lights for the real start. It is a pretty even getaway between all three so nothing major to report from that. That's lunch!
07:01:40 am
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The trio go around again as the aborted start is completed and the extra formation lap is called for. Just the proper standing start to come before this three join the rest for a well-earned lunch.
06:58:58 am
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No Ferrari but we do have Ocon for Haas, Piastri for McLaren and Hadjar for Red Bull for this test.
Red flag
06:55:53 am
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The red flag is out so everyone returns to the pits in preparation for the test of the restart procedure. Will Leclerc take part and, therefore, will we get the latest look at Ferrari's seemingly rocket ship launch?
06:54:07 am
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Stroll gets back out for a second lap just before the red flag is shown to start the race control systems test - but not before the Canadian driver goes off-track at Turn 13, which was pretty odd. He seemed to miss the corner and go wide.
06:51:28 am
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All that gushing over Leclerc's mileage and quietly Ocon in the Haas has overtaken the Ferrari driver as he starts his 81st lap of the day. All encouraging signs for Ferrari-powered cars though, given Perez is also north of 60 laps for Cadillac too.
Pit stop
06:47:29 am
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Stroll completes an installation lap for Aston and returns to the pits with 15 minutes to go before the lunch break. But with the FIA systems check starting in about five minutes, that is probably all he'll have time for until the afternoon session.
Filip Cleeren
06:45:36 am
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I'm told Antonelli suffered a loss of pneumatic pressure and the team will have to change the power unit. That's Antonelli done for the test, with Russell in the car when it's ready in the afternoon.
06:44:09 am
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Good morning/afternoon to Stroll who is on track for Aston for the first time today.
06:42:50 am
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'mbcbriand' asks what is the record for most laps on a single day of testing.
It is a hard one to be confident on given the days of private testing and unlimited tyres, but in the modern era with a limited allocation of tyres and so on, Kimi Raikkonen did 157 laps of Barcelona during 2018 pre-season testing for Ferrari. That was equal to two-and-a-half race distances.
Obviously different tracks, but Leclerc is approaching close to one-and-a-half grand prix distances today in Bahrain, so if he gets a race sim in this afternoon he'll match that.
Pit stop
06:35:09 am
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Leclerc pits and trials a launch from the pitbox before slamming on the brakes to allow the mechanics to wheel him back into the garage.
06:33:18 am
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Still no Stroll in the Aston, and it looks like an early lunch at Mercedes following Antonelli's on-track stoppage, but fastest driver of the day Leclerc nips out again to take his tally to 77 laps.
Photo
06:32:03 am
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As we approach the lunch break, let's have a caption competition for this shot of Binotto, presumably phoning where his lunch date is, and we'll share our favourites in the interval.
Mattia Binotto, Audi F1 Team
Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images
06:27:22 am
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While we wait for Stroll to head out, let's focus on other teams for a change. Perez is pounding around on the C1 tyres for Cadillac so despite setting his new personal best for the day, a 1m41.102s, he is getting nowhere near pushing outright performance.
06:24:46 am
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Aston Martin must have heard our grumbling as the garage screens are pulled back to reveal Stroll sitting in the car preparing for a first run of the morning.
06:20:32 am
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Just to clear up why Pedro de La Rosa is speaking to the media on behalf of Aston Martin. He is a 'team representative' and has held a media-facing role for a while, but over the past two weeks he's been doing a lot more speaking than usual. Aston Martin's chief trackside officer Mike Krack has also faced the media in the official press conferences so far this year, but we're yet to hear from new team principal Adrian Newey apart from the stage-managed chat at the team's launch.
06:15:34 am
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If Leclerc keeps up his rate of lappery, he'll reach a century of laps before the lunch break, which would be almost unheard of - even in modern testing standards with stable regs. The Ferrari driver is already up to 74 laps today, and what's more he is in the car for the entire day so he could be on for an all-time record if he has the tyres left available.
06:10:13 am
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All appears well on the track thus far, beyond the depression developing at Aston Martin given their current no-show and confirmation of short runs only due to a shortage of parts.
Haydn Cobb
06:06:10 am
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Thanks very much, hello one and all, how are we? I'm almost sorry to take over from Stuart and his coverage of testing, I was enjoying it probably a bit too much.
06:04:00 am
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AND IT'S GOOD MORNING FROM HIM
Well, the hour of Sean Connery's favourite sport (10-ish) is upon us here in the UK so it's time for me to leave you in the capable hands of Haydn Cobb. I'll be back later to wind up the final hours of the test with more abject madness...
05:59:29 am
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Sainz ended his long run after 14 laps. Ocon is still circulating on hards, 10 laps on those now. At 51 laps total for the day he's equal with Piastri.
05:58:32 am
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Meanwhile Perez now on 30 laps, five laps into a stint on hards. He's been using the prototype Pirellis for most of his running thus far – 24 laps on those.
05:56:35 am
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We've been remiss in not sharing ambient and track temps thus far. FOM data screen says 46C track temp, 26C ambient.
Enough to make even Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor break into a sweat.
05:55:27 am
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'Mood Mondo' has a gloomy prognostication, although – *spoiler alert* – they are not really going out on a limb:
"Both Astons to retire in Australia and the first drivetrain components will be changed. How long before the engine and gearbox pool are empty? How often will Aston take a grid penalty this season? Which member of the so-called management team will be the first sacrificial lamb?"
In terms of denudation of the pool, it's looking like mid-season for some components. Remember the dog days of McLaren when Honda was going through an MGU-H every week?
That and the PU supposedly being overweight as well, with all the knock-on effects on car performance that entails.
As to when the next game of 'Spin The P45' begins, I would imagine Lawrence Stroll has started thumping his desk already.
05:50:36 am
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Oscar Piastri spent a while in the garage after the red flag, amid much twiddling of tools around the rear of his McLaren, but he's getting stuck into a long run now – seven laps into a stint on scrubbed mediums, last lap 1m39.963s.
05:47:43 am
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Returning to the subject at hand, Carlos Sainz did a 14-lap long run on scrubbed mediums earlier. He's currently 12 laps into another run on used mediums. 1m43.180s last time around.
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By: Autosport Staff
Published: Feb 20, 2026, 12:32 PM
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