2026 Formula 1 Bahrain preseason test: Leclerc fastest on Day 2 as Mercedes & Red Bull hit trouble

Thursday, 12 February 2026 at 17:17

Charles Leclerc ended the second day of the 2026 Formula 1 preseason test in Bahrain fastest of all on a day when the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes suffered from reliability issues.

The day featured a few Red Flags spread across the morning and evening sessions of Day 2.

Cadillac were responsible for two of those Red Flags as Sergio Perez stopped out on track in the morning while Valtteri Bottas lost part of his mirror, which fell on the track in the afternoon, causing another.

Pierre Gasly also caused a Red Flag in the afternoon after his A526 stopped on track at Turn 1. The final Red Flag came during a test procedure for the track's systems.

Leclerc was in the cockpit of the Ferrari SF-26 all day on Thursday and racked up 139 laps with a best time of 1:34.273.

Lando Norris, on duty for McLaren, was second fastest, almost half a second slower than Leclerc, but managed the highest tally of laps on the day, 149.

Ollie Bearman came third in the Haas and drove a total of 130 laps in the VF-26 over the course of the day.

Mercedes and Red Bull woes

The two teams, which up to now have been considered favorites, suffered the most on Day 2 of the test.

Starting with Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli only managed three laps in the morning after the W17 was hit with a power unit issue, the team reportedly having to change it.

However, George Russell managed to bounce back in the afternoon with 54 laps and the fourth-fastest time.

Red Bull, also catching the attention of rivals, suffered from a hydraulic leak on their RB22, which meant Isack Hadjar could run only one lap at the end of the morning session.

But the Frenchman enjoyed a productive afternoon, with 87 laps on the board and the fifth-fastest time.

Gabriel Bortoleto took over the driving at Audi in the PM and posted the sixth fastest time as he accumulated 67 laps which made a decent haul for the team when adding the 47 laps Nico Hulkenberg managed in the morning with the tenth best time.

Despite causing one of the Red Flags of the day, Gasly ended up with 97 laps and the seventh fastest time in the Alpine.

Cadillac, on the other hand managed to exceed a century of laps, 109 to be precise with Valtteri Bottas eighth fastest and Sergio Perez 15th.

Another good day for "catching up" Williams

Williams managed 131 laps on Day 2 in Bahrain which Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz jointly achieved, as the team continues to deliver decent mileage as they try to catch up with their rivals after missing out on Barcelona.

Albon, who was ninth fastest, commented: "We’re playing catch up but for the most part we’ve hit the mileage that we needed to. We are learning a lot.

"There’s no secret, we missed quite a lot of information that we would have got if we did Barcelona, but the run-plan so far has been constructive.

"We’ve got a clear goal in mind, and we’re just ticking them off," Albon concluded as Sainz was 12th fastest.

After the setback of Day, Racing Bulls had a better day in Bahrain with Arvid Lindblad (11th fastest) putting in 83 laps as Liam Lawson (13th fastest) managed 50 laps in the morning session.

Aston Martin recover and rack up the miles

After Lance Stroll's disastrous opening day in Bahrain which saw the Canadian only manage 36 laps, his teammate, Fernando Alonso, enjoyed a better day in the AMR26.

Although the Spaniard was 14th fastest, he was able to run 98 laps on Thursday after the Honda power unit issues that marred the team on Wednesday.

It is rumored that the tightly-packaged AMR26 is not allowing the Honda power unit to breathe or get cooled which necessitated an engine change yesterday while the bodywork was opened up a bit for better cooling.

How Stroll insisted that was not the case, he said: "I think they sorted some issues out that we had yesterday.

"I don’t think cooling is the issue," he claimed. "We have a lot of things to work on on the engine side. We also have to understand the car and just find more performance in the car and the engine. That’s the plan today, tomorrow, next week.

"The car looks good aesthetically, but it needs to be fast. If it looks great and it’s slow, it doesn’t really mean anything," Stroll concluded.

The session was concluded with practice starts which is something the drivers need to adapt to with the new power units.