Sergio Perez breaks down

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LIVE UPDATES - F1 2026 Bahrain Pre-Season Testing: Day 2

Live updates from the second day of the opening F1 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain.

Key moments:

Charles Leclerc produces fastest lap of test so far for Ferrari
Sergio Perez's Cadillac breaks down inside first 10 minutes, causing red flag
Red Bull set to miss first two hours of Thursday after car build issue

In case you missed it:

Reigning F1 world champion Lando Norris set the pace on the opening day in his McLaren, ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Teams largely enjoyed strong reliability on the first day, which was interrupted by two brief red flags.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff started the mind games, claiming Red Bull's new power unit is the "benchmark" and could be a second faster on the straights thanks to their energy deployment.
Lewis Hamilton was critical of the new F1 2026 cars, branding them as "slower than GP2".
Mercedes and Aston Martin ran into issues

Preparations for the new F1 campaign are ramping up as official pre-season testing continues in Bahrain.

After a five-day private shakedown in Barcelona at the end of January, all 11 teams are back in action as the Bahrain International Circuit hosts two, three-day official pre-season tests over the next two weeks.

The first of which takes place between 11-13 February, before a second is held on 18-20 February.

Testing takes place between 7am and 4pm with a one-hour lunch break each day.

12 Feb 2026

08:32

Aston Martin check in

It wasn't a great start to the opening test for Aston Martin, with a "data anomaly" in the engine restricting Lance Stroll to just 36 laps on Wednesday. The Silverstone squad are in need of a better day two.

It's Fernando Alonso's turn in the Adrian Newey-designed AMR26 today and he has completed nine laps so far with a best time of 1m31.916s, leaving him sixth on the current leaderboard. Eight drivers have set times during the opening hour and a half of running.

Fernando Alonso

08:19

New fastest time of test

Charles Leclerc now goes fastest, producing the fastest time we have seen in testing so far with a 1m34.442s on soft tyres.

That betters Lando Norris's opening day benchmark by a couple of tenths and puts the Ferrari driver top of the pile by 1.3 seconds.

08:03

Lando Norris has just lowered the benchmark with a 1m35.795s, but it's still a chunk off his 1m34.669s that set the pace on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Sergio Perez has come back out in the Cadillac after his earlier stoppage. His first lap time of the day is a 1m43.185s, which puts him fifth of the seven drivers to have set a time so far.

08:02

Lap times after one hour

2026 F1 Bahrain Pre-Season Test 1: Day 2 (8am)
Pos	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time	Laps
1	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren Mastercard F1 Team	1m36.187s	7
2	Pierre Gasly	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1m37.625s	20
3	Ollie Bearman	GBR	TGR Haas F1 Team	1m37.686s	15
4	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari HP	1m40.451s	14
5	Sergio Perez	MEX	Cadillac F1 Team	1m43.185s	4
6	Liam Lawson	NZL	Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team	1m51.063s	6
7	Alex Albon	THA	Atlassian Williams F1 Team	2m09.603s	7
8	Nico Hulkenberg	GER	Audi Revolut F1 Team	No time set	7
9	Kimi Antonelli	ITA	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	No time set	3
10	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team	No time set	2

07:55

Norris back on top

Day one pacesetter Lando Norris has just gone fastest with a 1m36.187s.

The McLaren driver goes 1.4 seconds clear of Pierre Gasly.

07:50

Pierre Gasly and Ollie Bearman have been trading fastest laps in the last few minutes.

It's the Alpine driver who is back on top of the timesheet with a 1m37.625s, having briefly lost top spot to Bearman's Haas.

Gasly's latest lap time puts him more than a second clear of the pack.

07:38

Delayed start for Red Bull

Uh oh. We hope we weren't the kiss of death by mentioning how crucial today could be for Isack Hadjar.

Red Bull have just confirmed to us that the team encountered a "routine issue" with the car build yesterday and are not expecting to be in action for the next two hours.

Potentially missing half of the morning session is not an ideal start to Hadjar's day.

07:31

Alpine's Pierre Gasly remains the only driver with a meaningful time so far with a 1m39.625s.

For reference, the quickest time yesterday was a 1:34.669 from McLaren's Lando Norris.

07:21

Important day for Hadjar

Isack Hadjar is getting a full day of running in the brand-new Red Bull today, with teammate Max Verstappen watching on from the sidelines after he had a strong first day in the RB22 and clocked the most mileage of a single driver by lapping the Bahrain International Circuit 136 times.

The 21-year-old Frenchman will be looking to put his disruptive crash in the Barcelona shakedown behind him and have a solid day to get back on track and avoid a troubled start to his Red Bull career.

It is set to be a huge year for Hadjar as he becomes the latest driver given the unenviable task of being Verstappen's teammate following a standout rookie F1 campaign. Will he fare better than his predecessors? Time will tell.

Isack Hadjar

07:16

Green flag

A speedy recovery! Sergio Perez's Cadillac has been retrieved and we are clear to return to green flag conditions.

07:11

Red flag

We have an early red flag and it's for Sergio Perez, who has ground to a halt in his Cadillac on the back straight during what appeared to be an out-lap.

That's the first red flag of the day. We only had two on Wednesday, and we are already half way to matching the total stoppages from day one.

07:07

Charles Leclerc immediately improves to a 1m47.597s, before Pierre Gasly replaces him at the top on a 1m40.313s for Alpine.

Seven drivers have already gone out inside the opening 10 minutes of running this morning.

07:06

We have a first lap time on the board nice and early from Charles Leclerc, who posts a 1m57.509s in his Ferrari.

07:00

Morning session underway!

We have a green flag and the morning session on the second day of the opening pre-season test in Bahrain is go!

06:58

Who is driving on Thursday?

McLaren - Lando Norris

Mercedes - Kimi Antonelli (AM), George Russell (PM)

Red Bull - Isack Hadjar

Ferrari - Charles Leclerc

Williams - Alex Albon (AM), Carlos Sainz (PM)

Racing Bulls - Liam Lawson (AM), Arvid Lindblad (PM)

Aston Martin - Fernando Alonso

Haas - Ollie Bearman

Audi: Nico Hulkenberg (AM), Gabriel Bortoleto (PM)

Alpine: Pierre Gasly

Cadillac: Sergio Perez (AM), Valtteri Bottas (PM)

Hulkenberg

06:50

Good morning on day two

Good morning and welcome to Crash.net's live coverage of the second day of the first F1 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain.

New F1 world champion Lando Norris was quickest in his McLaren on the opening day, but it was Red Bull and Max Verstappen who shined, leaving their rivals fearing they could have a major advantage heading into the new campaign.

We have another eight hours of F1 testing action coming up for you on Thursday, and we will be keeping you up to date with everything that happens at the Bahrain International Circuit right here.

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