Bahrain Test Day 1: Lando Norris edges out Max Verstappen on fascinating opening day

McLaren driver Lando Norris set the pace on the opening day of the first official pre-season test of F1 2026 in Bahrain.

The reigning world champion clocked a fastest lap time of 1:34.668, outpacing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.129 seconds.

Lando Norris sets the pace on Day 1 of F1 2026 Bahrain test

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After an interesting morning in which Audi debuted its not-quite-zero-pod sidepods, Alpine showed off its answer to the rear wing’s active aerodynamics, and Max Verstappen set the pace with the top four separated by just a second, several teams swapped drivers during the lunch break.

Norris was in for Oscar Piastri at McLaren as Charles Leclerc replaced Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari.

Kimi Antonelli replaced George Russell at Mercedes, while Alex Albon replaced Carlos Sainz at Williams.

Pierre Gasly was in the Alpine in place of Franco Colapinto and Sergio Perez got behind the wheel of the Cadillac after Valtteri Bottas carried out the team’s morning running. Nico Hulkenberg also replaced Gabriel Bortoleto at Audi.

Norris and the morning’s pacesetter Verstappen were two of the first out on track, laying down the laps with Verstappen’s 1:35.433 from the morning standing as the time to beat.

They were joined by Perez and the rest of the field, excluding Gasly, who sat in the Alpine garage.

The team’s morning had been hampered by an undisclosed problem when Colapinto was in the car that limited him to just 28 laps.

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Leclerc made immediate inroads into the morning’s top 11, up to sixth place with Hulkenberg ninth in the Audi and Albon P11.

Hulkenberg brought out the second red flag of the day when he stopped on the back straight.

Another driver in a spot of trouble was Lance Stroll. Three laps into his afternoon’s session, he parked the AMR26 in the Aston Martin garage and headed to the team’s hospitality.

A statement issued to PlanetF1.com by Aston Martin read: “Our power unit test plan today with Lance went as planned in the morning, however, we detected a data anomaly this afternoon.

“We are now proceeding with precautionary checks on the PU to understand the exact root cause before we can resume testing.”

Norris replaced Leclerc in P6 in the second hour of the afternoon session, but the top five remained as they were at lunch.

At the beginning of the penultimate hour, Verstappen extended his benchmark time at the front to a 1:34.830, seven tenths up on Norris, who was also improving, while Leclerc slotted into fourth place behind Piastri.

The Ferrari driver then had a moment at Turn 9, pinching the left-front tyre on his Ferrari and going wide of the apex.

Norris overhauled Verstappen for P1, putting in a 1:34.669. That stood as the time to beat heading into the final hour with Norris ahead of Verstappen, Leclerc, Piastri and Russell, the latter two having carried out their running in the morning session.

Racing Bulls, meanwhile, had called time on its running with around an hour left of the clock.

The team confirmed that a fluid leak did for the VCARB03, while Antonelli had covered just a solitary lap as Mercedes were “fixing an issue we found as part of our planned set-up changes.”

As Norris and Leclerc squeezed in some practice starts, the former also performing some pitstop practice, some other drivers were having adventures out on track.

Albon locked up and ran wide at the Turns 9/10 complex with Perez also locking up heavily into the first corner. Gasly also locked up heavily and ran wide at Turn 10.

Ocon improved to fourth, albeit 0.909s off Norris’s benchmark and four tenths adrift of Leclerc in third, as Hulkenberg made up a few places to eighth.

Antonelli returned to the track with around 20 minutes left on the clock and became the latest driver to run off track at Turn 10 as Verstappen closed Norris’s advantage to 0.129s.

Verstappen spent the entire day’s running on board the Red Bull RB22 and ended the day as the driver with most laps completed with 136.

Williams carried out the most laps among the teams with 145 on the board.

Lap times: Day 1 of Bahrain F1 2026 testing

1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:34.669 58 laps

2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.129 136 laps

3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.521 80 laps

4 Esteban Ocon Haas +0.909 115 laps

5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.933 54 laps

6 George Russell Mercedes +1.439 56 laps

7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +1.764 52 laps

8 Pierre Gasly Alpine +2.096 49 laps

9 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +2.192 73 laps

10 Alexander Albon Williams +2.768 68 laps

11 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +2.960 30 laps

12 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls +3.276 75 laps

13 Carlos Sainz Williams +3.552 77 laps

14 Sergio Perez Cadillac +4.159 58 laps

15 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +4.202 49 laps

16 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac +4.481 49 laps

17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +5.214 36 laps

18 Franco Colapinto Alpine +5.661 28 laps

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