{"id":486139,"date":"2026-02-19T21:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/486139\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T21:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:13:11","slug":"f1-testing-mercedes-double-up-in-bahrain-but-mclaren-max-verstappen-and-lewis-hamilton-close-day-2-as-it-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/486139\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 testing: Mercedes double up in Bahrain but McLaren, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton close – day 2 as it happened"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nate Saunders<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Nate Saunders<\/p>\n

Senior Writer, F1\u00a0and\u00a0<\/p>\n

Laurence Edmondson<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Laurence Edmondson<\/p>\n

Senior Writer, F1\u2022\u00a0Joined ESPN in 2009
\u2022\u00a0An FIA accredited F1 journalist since 2011<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

Feb 19, 2026, 11:20 AM ET<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton both had the full day in their Red Bull and Ferrari cars for the penultimate day of Formula 1 2026 preseason testing on Thursday, and ESPN brought you all the action.<\/p>\n

Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull will all be battling for supremacy at the final week, with several subplots emerging in Bahrain.<\/p>\n

F1’s first week of preseason testing saw complaints from drivers about the new cars, red flags, and proposals for rule changes.<\/p>\n

As ever in testing, it’s almost impossible to analyse form and pace from the lap times as the brand new cars rack up the miles on the first few days, but comments from drivers have made their thoughts on the new technology and regulations fairly clear.<\/p>\n

George Russell set the pace on day one of the second test, although McLaren and Ferrari also showed a glimpse of their pace.<\/p>\n

Follow all the latest updates and analysis from week two of testing below.<\/p>\n

– F1 testing: Who has posted fastest times, most laps?<\/a>
– F1 testing: When and how to watch live, full Bahrain preseason schedule<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nate Saunders Close Nate Saunders Senior Writer, F1\u00a0and\u00a0 Laurence Edmondson Close Laurence Edmondson Senior Writer, F1\u2022\u00a0Joined ESPN in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-486139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}