Antonelli Tops Bahrain Test Hamilton Triggers Red Flag

The first test week in Bahrain is over! The Mercedes team was for a long time notable mainly by its absence in Friday’s final session. As soon as Andrea Kimi Antonelli finally hit the track, he immediately trimmed the fastest time of the week — previously held by teammate George Russell. Lewis Hamilton triggered a red flag in the final ten minutes, while Isack Hadjar nearly drove into the Mercedes garage.

The Friday afternoon session started quietly, and it took a while before the first drivers appeared on circuit. Isack Hadjar ultimately went out first; the driver had only been able to run the afternoon session the previous day for his new team, Red Bull. In the first half hour there were just five cars circulating: Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson, Hadjar, Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez. Lawson, as in the morning running, was primarily piling up laps — after thirty minutes the tally for the whole Friday already stood at 94 laps. The New Zealander was also the first driver to reach the 100-lap mark after an hour.

A notable absence in the first hour of the afternoon was Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Earlier in the day the Silver Arrows had struggled to remove the nosecone on the W17, and there was doubt whether Mercedes was starting the session late because of repeated issues with that component. After an hour and a half the young Italian did hit the track. Exactly halfway through the afternoon session Kimi Antonelli shaved his teammate’s best time: with a 1:33.900 he went almost two-hundredths quicker than Russell, before improving that best lap further to a 1:33.669.

Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton spent the rest of the session focused on long runs. The Australian ran his race simulation on mediums, consistently turning in low 1:39s. Piastri treated his race run seriously in the final hour of Bahrain’s first test week and caught up with Sergio Pérez, who was out in the Cadillac. The Australian made it tense for ten minutes when he locked up at Turn 1, but then returned to 1:39 pace. The McLaren driver completed 153 laps in total — more than any other driver recorded on a single day this week.

Red flag for Hamilton

With ten minutes still on the clock, Lewis Hamilton triggered the first red flag of the afternoon session. The Ferrari driver came to a halt with a technical issue on his SF-26. The Scuderia wasn’t the only team struggling today — Lance Stroll also spent a long time in the garage. Isack Hadjar provided a touch of levity in the paddock, having accidentally driven into the Mercedes garage instead of Red Bull’s.

Despite his late retirement, Hamilton was only half a second off the fastest time. That benchmark remained in Kimi Antonelli’s hands at the end of the day. Franco Colapinto closed the test day with a brief excursion through the grass.

Results for the whole Friday after the afternoon session

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