{"id":487621,"date":"2026-02-20T12:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487621\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T12:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:25:08","slug":"f1-testing-2026-live-updates-stream-and-lap-times-with-leclerc-on-track-in-bahrain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487621\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 testing 2026 live: Updates, stream and lap times with Leclerc on track in Bahrain"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Who’s driving this afternoon? <\/p>\n

Mercedes – George Russell <\/p>\n

Red Bull – Max Verstappen <\/p>\n

Ferrari – Charles Leclerc <\/p>\n

Racing Bulls – Arvid Lindblad <\/p>\n

Aston Martin – Lance Stroll <\/p>\n

Cadillac – Valtteri Bottas <\/p>\n

Kieran Jackson20 February 2026 12:13<\/p>\n

<\/a>Afternoon session underway<\/p>\n

The likes of Max Verstappen and George Russell are back in the cockpit for the final session of pre-season testing in Bahrain. <\/p>\n

One final 4-hour window….<\/p>\n

Kieran Jackson20 February 2026 12:00<\/p>\n

<\/a>Johnny Herbert makes 2026 F1 predictions <\/p>\n

\u201cI’m going to obviously go with George Russell to win the championship,\u201d Herbert said, in association with Snabbare<\/a>. \u201cThen Max Verstappen, followed by Oscar Piastri. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be brilliant to see Max and George go wheel-to-wheel. It’s going to be mighty, mighty tight between Oscar and Lando. Oscar is going to learn from the experience of last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cMotivation can be such a powerful thing and that’s why I’ve gone for Oscar because Oscar will be applying himself more than he did last year and has a point to prove.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JohnnyJohnny Herbert (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Kieran Jackson20 February 2026 11:45<\/p>\n

<\/a>Morning leaderboard <\/p>\n

Leclerc (Ferrari) – 1:33:689 (80 laps)<\/p>\n

Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.227 (49)<\/p>\n

Piastri (McLaren) +0.663 (66)<\/p>\n

Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.822 (59)<\/p>\n

Gasly (Alpine) +1.157 (57)<\/p>\n

Lindblad (RB) +1.549 (77)<\/p>\n

Sainz (Williams) +1.563 (66)<\/p>\n

Hulkenberg (Audi) +2.330 (64)<\/p>\n

Perez (Cadillac) +7.153 (61)<\/p>\n

Stroll (Aston Martin) no time (2)<\/p>\n

Kieran Jackson20 February 2026 11:23<\/p>\n

<\/a>Charles Leclerc fastest<\/p>\n

A really productive morning for the Ferrari driver. <\/p>\n

He takes the fastest time this morning with a 1:33:689, 0.227 secs ahead of Kimi Antonelli in second – who had an issue midway through the session. <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri is third, 0.663 secs off, with Esteban Ocon (+0.805) and Isack Hadjar (+1.157) completing the top-five. <\/p>\n

\"FerrariFerrari have impressed so far during pre-season testing (Bradley Collyer\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Kieran Jackson20 February 2026 11:10<\/p>\n

<\/a>All three away smoothly<\/p>\n

A fair bit of a gap between all three cars but they all move off smoothly – no daring overtakes like yesterday from Lewis Hamilton! <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s your lot for the morning session! <\/p>\n

Kieran Jackson20 February 2026 11:04<\/p>\n

<\/a>Only three cars in for practice start <\/p>\n

Ocon, Hadjar and Piastri are the only cars lining up for the new practice start procedure at the end of the session. <\/p>\n

Interesting – you\u2019d have thought as many drivers as possible would like to practice with the new \u2018five-second blue warning\u2019 light. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see how this one goes…<\/p>\n

Kieran Jackson20 February 2026 10:59<\/p>\n

<\/a>Lance Stroll out the garage <\/p>\n

One solitary lap for Stroll, as he finally leaves the garage this morning. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a tumultuous testing period for Aston Martin – and a new blow today with the news that engine partner Honda can\u2019t support long runs at the moment… <\/p>\n

Kieran Jackson20 February 2026 10:46<\/p>\n

<\/a>NEWS: Stefano Domenicali hints at return of much-loved F1 race for 2027: \u2018Stay tuned\u2019<\/p>\n

The popular race at Istanbul Park has not been on the sport\u2019s schedule since 2021, when Valtteri Bottas won the grand prix<\/a> in wet conditions. In total, there have been nine events at the 14-turn circuit, with its debut race back in 2005.<\/p>\n

Kieran Jackson20 February 2026 10:29<\/p>\n

<\/a>Charles Leclerc leads the way on lap count<\/p>\n

Top of the leaderboard with less than an hour to go – and top of the lap count too! <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 64Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) – 57Esteban Ocon (Haas) – 50Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – 49Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) – 49Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) – 49Carlos Sainz (Williams) – 48Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) – 38Pierre Gasly (Alpine) – 38Sergio Perez (Cadillac) – 29Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) – 0<\/p>\n

Kieran Jackson20 February 2026 10:12<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who’s driving this afternoon? Mercedes – George Russell Red Bull – Max Verstappen Ferrari – Charles Leclerc Racing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-487621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487621","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=487621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}