Day 1 of first F1 2026 Bahrain pre-season test as it happened

Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of the opening day of pre-season testing in Bahrain. 

We will be back to do it all again and guide you through the day two action bright and early tomorrow morning. 

Live updates will be provided from 0645 UK time. Catch you then!

A very productive day for Williams, who bounced back from missing the entire Barcelona shakedown to complete the most laps on the opening day in Bahrain. 

Aston Martin are on the back foot and have work to do. They won't be happy to have only lapped the Bahrain International Circuit 36 times on Wednesday. 

An issue on Lance Stroll's car prevented the Canadian from taking part in most of the afternoon session. 

Williams - 145

Red Bull - 136 

Ferrari - 132

Audi - 122 

Haas - 115

McLaren - 112

Cadillac - 107

Mercedes - 86

Alpine - 77

Racing Bulls - 75 

Aston Martin - 36

Max Verstappen improves but stays second as he closes to within 0.129 seconds of Lando Norris's McLaren. 

Pierre Gasly has also produced a better lap to leapfrog Nico Hulkenberg's Audi and put his Alpine eighth. 

Only four cars are on track heading into the final 10 minutes of running on day one, with Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Nico Hulkenberg and Kimi Antonelli the only drivers in action. 

Some interesting innovation down at Williams! 

Max Verstappen has had a busy day in the Red Bull. The four-time world champion has racked up an impressive total of 128 laps in the RB22. 

Pierre Gasly is the latest driver to lock up and run wide at Turn 10. The Alpine driver is able to continue without further drama. Once again highlighting how snappy these new F1 cars are. 

Speaking on Sky Sports F1 about Red Bull and Mercedes, pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz notes: "Red Bull are the team that’s really come here and actually taken the initiative and been quickest through most of the day.

"Max Verstappen was first out in his RB22, and has really taken this test session into his own hands. This car looks well suited to this Bahrain circuit.

"But what about Mercedes? Whether they’ve taken out the sandbags and slowed themselves down, we don’t know, because they haven’t looked as dialled in as the McLaren and Red Bull here in Bahrain.

"Kimi Antonelli has had an issue that’s just been fixed and is out on track.

"The Ferrari has been ok, but only in these night-time conditions. Lewis Hamilton said it just didn’t behave at all how he wanted to in during the breezy morning session."  

Esteban Ocon also makes a move up the leaderboard, posting a 1m35.578s to go fourth-quickest for Haas. 

Nico Hulkenberg also improves, lifting his Audi up to P8 and ahead of the aforementioned Pierre Gasly. 

Pierre Gasly has just moved up to eighth place in the timesheet with a 1m37.037s in his Mercedes-powered Alpine. 

Kimi Antonelli has made his way back out and is up to ninth now. 

Lance Stroll hasn't done much running today, with Aston providing an update. 

"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."

One hour to go and Norris leads the way with a 1m34.669s. 

Leclerc is now out there on soft tyres with just over an hour to go and has advanced to third on the timesheets. 

Seeing an Audi on an F1 circuit is still taking some getting used to!

Lando Norris has gone top of the pile with a 1m34.669s set on medium tyres. 

Verstappen is back in the pits after putting 116 laps on the Red Bull so far. 

Verstappen's lap count is up to 112 for the day as he continues to lead the way. 

Only day one of testing, but this is impressive from the four-time world champion and Red Bull. Already an early contender for pre-season favourite?

Mercedes also looks to be having some issues. Kimi Antonelli hasn't been out for a long time and only has one registered lap on the board.