Leclerc Leads Bahrain Test Aston Martin Struggles Persist

The final morning session in Bahrain is done. The teams have one afternoon of testing left before the entire F1 caravan heads to Melbourne for the season-opening round. Ferrari made the most of Friday morning: Charles Leclerc posted the quickest time and completed eighty laps. Aston Martin continued to battle power unit issues and only hit the track in the final quarter-hour.

Several teams were itching to begin their last test day in Bahrain this morning. Arvid Lindblad was first out at the end of the pit lane, followed by Esteban Ocon and Charles Leclerc. The tempo was high straight away: multiple squads put in so-called flying laps. Leclerc looked sharp, but Isack Hadjar — once again running for Red Bull — also appeared competitive. Cadillac waited before running on Friday, but after an hour of running Sergio Pérez ventured onto the circuit. The newcomers still had plenty of data to collect and sent the Mexican out with an aero-rake.

Just over an hour in, Kimi Antonelli brought out the first red flag. The Mercedes driver suffered a technical issue exiting Turn 10 and had to leave his W17 at the side of the track. It was a rare stoppage for Mercedes, which had been reliably strong through the recent test weeks. From the available footage, Antonelli’s electrical power appeared to cut out, after which the internal combustion engine also failed. The car was quickly recovered and the session resumed.

Leclerc devours kilometres

Leclerc set the fastest time of the day not long after. With a 1:33.689 he still wasn’t anywhere near the quickest lap of the week, which remains on the books for Antonelli. The Monegasque, it should be noted, ran a conventional rear wing. The radical concept that debuted on Thursday on Lewis Hamilton’s car — where the wing rotated 180 degrees to allow more airflow down the straight — had disappeared.

Aston Martin, meanwhile, endured another difficult session. After two stoppages on Wednesday and Thursday, Honda confirmed in a statement that the new power unit is suffering reliability issues in the long runs. As a result the team was confined to ‘short stints’. Aston Martin spent the vast majority of the test in the garage; Lance Stroll only went out in the very last 15 minutes for two test laps.