2026 Formula 1 Bahrain preseason Test 2: Leclerc tops final morning, Aston Martin AWOL

After the issues that ruined Fernando Alonso's running on Thursday, Honda announced that Aston Martin will only be able to do short runs on Friday as they conducted tests in Sakura.

However, Lance Stroll remained in the garage all the time only making a brief appearance in the final 15 minutes which was too late as the session was soon red flagged for revised race start procedure practice. The Canadian managed only two laps with no lap time set.

Putting Aston Martin's never-ending woes aside, Leclerc, who will be rounding off the test for Ferrari, delivered a 1:33.689 which was slower than what Kimi Antonelli managed at the end of Day 2 keeping in mind the Italian managed his best time in cooler better conditions, so it would be good to wait till the end of the day and see the best time that will be achieved at the end of this final test.

It was an impressive session for Leclerc who managed a full race simulation with 80 laps on the board.

Antonelli was second fastest in the Mercedes, over two tenths slower than the #16 Ferrari but only managed 49 laps after his session ended with the W17 broke down with a power unit issue during the session bringing out the Red Flag.

Oscar Piastri was third fastest in the McLaren with 66 laps. The Australian has now ended his testing and will hand the MCL40 over to Lando Norris for the PM session.

Haas managed the most mileage in the morning with Esteban Ocon putting in 82 laps and the fourth fastest time.

The Frenchman's test also comes to an end as Ollie Bearman will conclude Haas' running in the afternoon.

Isack Hadjar was fifth fastest for Red Bull Racing with 59 laps under his belt while Max Verstappen will be in the RB22 in the afternoon.

Pierre Gasly will drive the full final day for Alpine. The Frenchman was sixth fastest with 57 laps while Arvid Lindblad, also on duty all day, managed 77 laps and was seventh for Racing Bulls.

Carlos Sainz managed 66 laps for Williams and was eighth fastest and will continue in the FW48 for the rest of the day.

Audi had Nico Hulkenberg in the R26 with Gabriel Bortoleto set to take over after the lunch break. The German was ninth fastest with 64 laps.

It was a positive morning for Cadillac who managed 61 laps with Sergio Perez albeit being slowest of all.