LIVE – Follow the final day of F1 testing in Bahrain with live text commentary

F1 – Bahrain Tests 
Follow Bahrain's tests live with text updates

17h02 - End of the day's track day in Bahrain with Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes Benz) at the top of the timesheet. See you on Wednesday, February 18th for the second round of tests on the Sakhir International Circuit.

16h55 - According to information gathered by Canal+, Lewis Hamilton He didn't encounter any problems, but it appears to have been a fuel shortage caused by the driver's intention to... Classic Ferrari for sale to test the limits of the tank.

16:49 PM – Red flag! Problem for Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari).

16h31 - Esteban Ocon is pleased with the reliability of his TGR team Haas Speaking to Canal+, the American team, having completed over 700 laps, is the second most consistent on track this week. The Frenchman has already announced several new features for the... car for the second round of tests next week.

16h28 - Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) improves its time and moves up to 10th place, ahead of Alex Albon (Williams).

16h00 - With one hour remaining on the final day, here is the current standings and the number of laps completed by each driver.

15h33 - ☀️🌙 The sun is starting to set in Bahrain, with less than an hour and a half of the session left.

15:15 PM – ⏱️ Kimi Antonelli sets the new fastest time of the day and confirms Mercedes' good form when the W17 is working! The Italian sets the new benchmark at 1:33.900.

14h50 - ⏱️ Kimi Antonelli has finally taken to the track and is already setting the third fastest time ahead Oscar piastri After two laps! 1:34.491 for the Italian.

14h22 - The first driver to break the 100-lap barrier today, Liam Lawson suffered a quick spin before being able to restart. The Racing Bulls driver is currently sixth on the timesheets.

14h12 - ⏱️ Oscar Piastri sets the third fastest provisional time of the day. Running on soft tires, the driver McLaren sets his mark at 1:35.302, nearly a second behind Lewis Hamilton.

14h07 - 🛠️ While the lights have been green for over an hour in Bahrain, Kimi Antonelli has still not taken to the track to replace his teammate George Russell. The Italian has had a very difficult first two days, marked by various mechanical problems, and could still miss several precious moments of track time this Friday…

14h02 - According to Lawrence Barretto, Pierre Waché, the team's technical director Red BullIndeed, he appears satisfied with the progress made with the Red Bull Powertrains engine. In this regard, the other teams didn't wait until Friday to start predicting the performance of the power unit co-developed with Ford.

Is the Red Bull engine really "the benchmark" for the new 2026 era?

13h31 - 📊 Liam Lawson continues his consistent performance throughout the day. After completing numerous laps this morning, the New Zealander has now completed 96 laps on the Bahrain circuit. He is the driver with the most laps completed, ahead of George Russell with 78.

13:00 PM – The final track session of the week in Bahrain is underway!

12h06 - See you at 13 p.m. for the continuation of the hostilities.

12h04 - Statistics for the number of turns taken by each player:

• Lawson – 84 rpm
• Russell – 78 rpm
• Piastri – 72 rpm
• Hamilton – 69 laps
• Bearman – 69 rpm
• Sainz – 68 rounds
• Colapinto – 64 rpm
• Verstappen – 61 rounds
• Bortoleto – 60 rpm
• Stroll – 54 rounds
• Bottas – 37 rounds

12h00 - END OF THE MORNING SESSION! George Russell finished first ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Not a bad podium, is it? 

11h57 -  Lunch break is approaching in Bahrain and the established order remains unchanged. The drivers are now on race-style stints and are not focused on setting lap times.

11h42 - For comparison, the fastest time on day 3 of testing at Bahrain 2022, the first year under the previous regulations, was set at 1:31.720 by Max Verstappen. With his time of 1:33.918, George Russell, the fastest driver this week at the time of writing, is 2.2 seconds slower than Verstappen's time from four years ago.

11h39 - Moreover, on the side ofAlpineIt's the potential future world champion Franco Colapinto who has been riding since this morning. The Argentinian has completed 62 laps, the third-highest total. He is currently 6th, with a time 2.956 seconds behind George Russell, who still holds the benchmark time.

11h38 - If we're talking about football, it's because not much is happening on the pitch. We're thinking about Pierre Gaslywho skillfully manages his two passions for football and the F1he who is a shareholder of FC Versailles in N1, the third tier of French football.

11h31 - Today's funny stat, spotted by the account X @F1BigData: the last time FC Barcelona were down 4-0 at halftime, an Argentinian went on to win the World Cup… It was in 1953, in La Liga, the Spanish football league, against Real Madrid. Yesterday, the Catalans repeated this dismal performance against the other Madrid club, Atlético (4-0 final score). Is this a sign that Franco Colapinto will be a World Cup champion in 2026, 73 years after Juan Manuel Fangio? Okay, let's be honest: the stat is a bit far-fetched, but it's still funny.

The last time Barcelona went to half-time losing 4-0, an Argentina driver won the next Formula 1 title
Today, Barcelona went to half-time losing 4-0 pic.twitter.com/IAEiKpkauY

— Holiness (@F1BigData) February 12, 2026

11h14 - In terms of laps completed, George Russell is clearly in the lead with 73. After Kimi Antonelli's engine scare on Thursday (3 laps in the morning), the Brixworth power unit seems to have regained its reliability.

11h00 - The standings after three hours of driving:

10h34 - The image of the day so far: Valtteri Bottas walking next to his Cadillac.

Photo: F1

10h05 - The standings after just over two hours of driving this Friday:

10h02 - Cadillac lost significant track time this morning after a problem with Valtteri Bottas' car. The Finn only managed eight laps and his car is now stuck in the garage.

9h32 - Three drivers are currently on the track: Franco Colapinto (Alpine), Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls).

9h17 - A big scare for Gabriel Bortoleto in the last corner, but the Brazilian manages to narrowly maintain control of his Audi single-seater.

9:14 a.m. – George Russell improved his benchmark time with a lap of 1:33.918.

9:05 AM – Here is the standings after one hour of driving: 

9h - The red flag was waved after Bottas' Cadillac stopped on track, but the session was able to resume quickly. Sergio Pérez had also suffered a reliability issue yesterday morning, which also caused a red flag.

8h55 - At Aston MartinThe atmosphere isn't exactly serene. The Silverstone team is struggling with their AMR26, which has been finding it difficult to achieve reliability and performance since the start of the year. Lance Stroll gave a frank initial assessment, estimating that his car is four seconds slower than the competition.

Lance Stroll casts a pall over the Aston Martin: "We have four seconds to find."

8h47 - ⏱️​ George Russell's lap of 1:1.34 is already the fastest so far this week. It's still a long way from last year's qualifying times (075:29.841), but lap times are gradually decreasing. This trend is likely to intensify during the second test session next week. 

8h40 - Here is the provisional standings after 40 minutes of driving:

8h30 - There are indeed single-seaters on track, but on the other hand, the F1 live timing isn't working! It's difficult to tell you who's driving under these conditions.

8:20 p.m. – 💬​ Max Verstappen isn't exactly thrilled with these new cars: "It's not very fun to fly. The key word is management." he analyzes. From a On the other hand, I'm also aware of all the work done behind the scenes, and on the engine side as well. So it's not always the most pleasant thing to say, but you also have to be realistic about how it feels.

"It's not very 'Formula 1'. It looks more like..." Formula E "On steroids. The regulations are the same for everyone, so we have to deal with it. I'm in favor of a level playing field, but as a driver, I like to go all out. Currently, we can't do that."

8h11 - The track is still empty, no one has left the pits.

8h07 - Who will be racing today?

Morning

George Russell (Mercedes)
Lando Norris (McLaren)
Oliver Bearman (Haas)
Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
Carlos Sainz (Williams)
Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi)
Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac)
Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

Afternoon 

Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
Esteban Ocon (Haas)
Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
Alex Albon (Williams)
Nico Hülkenberg (Audi)
Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
Sergio Pérez (Cadillac)
Hisack Hadjar (Red Bull)

8h05 - Yesterday, it was at Charles Leclerc that the benchmark time had returned in his Ferrari. A very positive day for the Monegasque driver and for Lando Norris, who finished second. It was, however, more complicated for Mercedes and Red Bull, who experienced engine reliability issues.

8h - Hello everyone and welcome to the AUTOhebdo.fr live stream. We'll be live from 8am to 17pm to bring you all the action from this final day of the first track session in Bahrain.