Mercedes set new F1 test benchmark, McLaren hit trouble on day four

Mercedes produced a statement by setting a new benchmark lap time on the penultimate day of F1’s pre-season shakedown at Barcelona.

For the second day running, Mercedes held a 1-2 at the top of the timesheet at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but this time it was George Russell who led the way.

Russell produced a 1m16.641 seconds to lower the bar in terms of the test’s quickest overall time, hours after teammate Kimi Antonelli had posted a 1m17.081s which also usurped Wednesday’s headline time.

It was another smooth day for the impressive Mercedes, who racked up another mighty haul of 168 laps on Thursday to keep the Silver Arrows on top of the overall mileage chart as they bow out of the Barcelona shakedown, having completed their third and final permitted day of running.

Sitting in third place was Charles Leclerc who clocked a 1m19.128s, having taken over from teammate Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton recovered from what social media footage showed to be a fairly innocuous spin early doors to complete 85 laps as he and Leclerc chalked up 170 for Ferrari. 

Aston Martin finally debuts, McLaren hit trouble

Thursday marked the first appearance of Aston Martin’s highly-anticipated 2026 F1 challenger following the Silverstone squad’s late arrival to the first pre-season test.

Adrian Newey’s first Aston Martin F1 car, the AMR26, finally appeared on track with just one hour of the afternoon session remaining, having been flown into Spain and worked on late into Wednesday night and throughout Thursday.

Sporting an all-black livery, the AMR26 completed a handful of laps with Lance Stroll at the wheel before stopping on track in the closing minutes to  cause a red flag and bring the penultimate day to a dramatic end.

Before his Aston broke down, Stroll set a single timed lap which was a slow one at 1m46.404s, leaving him bottom of the leaderboard for what its worth.

After making a solid start to their pre-season programme on Wednesday, McLaren’s running on Thursday was interrupted by a fuel systems issue which cut short Oscar Piastri’s first day in the MCL40.

"It was nice to be back out, especially in a new car. A lot of new challenges for us this year up and down the grid, so it’s nice to get stuck into some of them,” the Australian said.

"Unfortunately, a few issues today. We had a fuel systems issue which cut our day a bit short, but I know the team is working really hard to get that fixed and get us back out for as many laps as we can tomorrow."

Red Bull sat out Thursday’s action as the team await spare parts as a consequence of Isack Hadjar’s heavy crash on Tuesday. The Milton Keynes squad expect to resume their test programme on Friday.

Haas also chose not to participate on the penultimate day after encountering two mechanical problems on Wednesday, while Alpine and Audi opted to save their final day of running for Friday. 

Williams are missing the entire opening test after failing to build their FW48 car in time.