{"id":491708,"date":"2026-02-20T05:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T05:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491708\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T05:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T05:16:12","slug":"oscar-piastri-second-on-penultimate-day-of-f1-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491708\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri second on penultimate day of F1 testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mercedes driver headed his McLaren rival by a meagre 0.058s at the end of Thursday\u2019s running.<\/p>\n

The second day of testing included a race run and pit stop simulations for Piastri.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother productive day,\u201d said Piastri, who completed 86 laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith each day at these tests, we\u2019re learning more about the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe focused on some race preparation running this afternoon, seeing where we can find performance, which went well and we made some good improvements as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still lots of performance to find, which is the case for every team on the grid, but overall, a smooth day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to getting back on track in the morning to finish out testing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen has the Red Bull RB20 to himself on day two, completing 139 laps on his way to third while Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc wound up fourth.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s champion Lando Norris topped the morning session before his time was topped in the cooler evening conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made some more good steps today,\u201d said Norris after logging 72 laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gaining more and more understanding of the tyres, the balance and the strengths and weaknesses of our cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a tyre perspective, the running of the same sets of tyres on both long and short runs to see how they perform was useful for our learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was also good to try the start procedure in these new regulation cars at the end of the morning session.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne more session of running tomorrow before we go racing, but I am feeling more confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to watch F1 pre-season testing: TV times, schedule, driver line-ups<\/a><\/p>\n

The afternoon session, which began at 3pm local time, was stopped when Fernando Alonso\u2019s Aston Martin AMR26 suffered a power unit-related issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not the easiest day with a few disruptions,\u201d said Alonso.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was important to get some mileage in, but it wasn\u2019t enough, and we couldn\u2019t complete our run plan due to a PU-related issue that caused an early finish to the afternoon session.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many things we need to fix, but I know everyone at the track and at the AMR Technology Campus is working at 100 percent capacity to find solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Testing will continue on Friday.<\/p>\n

Results: Formula 1 Bahrain Pre-Season Test Day 2<\/p>\n

Pos
\nNum
\nDriver
\nTeam
\nLaps
\nLap
\nDiff
\nGap<\/p>\n

1
\n12
\nKimi Antonelli
\nMercedes
\n79
\n1:32.803<\/p>\n

2
\n81
\nOscar Piastri
\nMcLaren
\n86
\n1:32.861
\n0.058
\n0.058<\/p>\n

3
\n3
\nMax Verstappen
\nRed Bull Racing
\n139
\n1:33.162
\n0.359
\n0.301<\/p>\n

4
\n44
\nLewis Hamilton
\nFerrari
\n78
\n1:33.408
\n0.605
\n0.246<\/p>\n

5
\n1
\nLando Norris
\nMcLaren
\n72
\n1:33.453
\n0.650
\n0.045<\/p>\n

6
\n43
\nFranco Colapinto
\nAlpine
\n120
\n1:33.818
\n1.015
\n0.365<\/p>\n

7
\n27
\nNico Hulkenberg
\nAudi
\n73
\n1:33.987
\n1.184
\n0.169<\/p>\n

8
\n63
\nGeorge Russell
\nMercedes
\n77
\n1:34.111
\n1.308
\n0.124<\/p>\n

9
\n31
\nEsteban Ocon
\nHaas F1 Team
\n58
\n1:34.201
\n1.398
\n0.090<\/p>\n

10
\n30
\nLiam Lawson
\nRacing Bulls
\n106
\n1:34.532
\n1.729
\n0.331<\/p>\n

11
\n23
\nAlexander Rossi
\nWilliams
\n117
\n1:34.555
\n1.752
\n0.023<\/p>\n

12
\n5
\nGabriel Bortoletto
\nAudi
\n29
\n1:35.263
\n2.460
\n0.708<\/p>\n

13
\n87
\nOliver Bearman
\nHaas F1 Team
\n69
\n1:35.279
\n2.476
\n0.016<\/p>\n

14
\n11
\nSergio Perez
\nCadillac
\n50
\n1:35.369
\n2.566
\n0.090<\/p>\n

15
\n14
\nFernando Alonso
\nAston Martin
\n68
\n1:37.472
\n4.669
\n2.103<\/p>\n

16
\n77
\nValtteri Bottas
\nCadillac
\n58
\n1:40.193
\n7.39
\n2.721<\/p>\n

17
\n6
\nIsak Hadjar
\nRed Bull Racing<\/p>\n

No time<\/p>\n

18
\n10
\nPierre Gasly
\nAlpine<\/p>\n

No time<\/p>\n

19
\n16
\nCharles Leclerc
\nFerrari<\/p>\n

No time<\/p>\n

20
\n18
\nLance Stroll
\nAston Martin<\/p>\n

No time<\/p>\n

21
\n41
\nArvid Lindblad
\nRacing Bulls<\/p>\n

No time<\/p>\n

22
\n55
\nCarlos Sainz
\nWilliams<\/p>\n

No time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mercedes driver headed his McLaren rival by a meagre 0.058s at the end of Thursday\u2019s running. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-491708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}