George Russell set the fastest time of the first Bahrain Formula 1 2026 test so far in the first hour of the third morning.
Mercedes’ Bahrain test has been nothing like as smooth as its experience during the Barcelona ‘shakedown week’, as it was forced into a full engine change on day two that limited Kimi Antonelli to just three laps.
That meant Mercedes started the final day of the first test at Sakhir with the second-lowest lap count of the 11 teams.
But Russell was among the first out when the session began, and was the first driver to show a serious turn of pace. He set a 1m34.821s 20 minutes into the session, then on his next run took almost three quarters of a second off that time.
He then went faster still just as the second hour began, becoming the first driver to lap below the 1m34s mark with a 1m33.918s.
Lewis Hamilton followed that up by setting his personal best time of the test for Ferrari, slotting into second, 0.291 seconds off Russell.
As was the case on Thursday morning, the first red flag of the day was caused by Cadillac.
This time, Valtteri Bottas had what appeared to be a mechanical failure and took to the runoff area at Turn 11, just before the end of the second sector.
Bottas looked under the rear of the car as he got out, before the Cadillac was lifted up and craned  away across the gravel trap.
Max Verstappen ended the first hour with the third-fastest time for Red Bull, 1.423s off Russell, but behind him and fourth-fastest Ollie Bearman (Haas) a number of other drivers also registered their fastest laps of the week.
These included Carlos Sainz (Williams) and Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) in fifth and sixth – with Sainz recording an early day-high 22 laps – and Franco Colapinto, who was eighth-fastest for Alpine, 4.483s off Russell’s best.
Oscar Piastri got his first timed laps of the day in just before the turn of the hour and was seventh fastest in the McLaren, 3.749s off.