Mercedes leads in equality and Aston Martin has problems at the start of the second tests in Bahrain

The English driver George Russell (Mercedes) was the fastest on the first day of the second week of Formula 1 preseason testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, although with McLaren and Ferrari very close, while Aston Martin experienced a day with many setbacks, even with Canadian Lance Stroll leaving the track, despite a very solid start to the day.

In the final stretch of the afternoon, Russell set the best time of the day with a 1:33.459, only ten thousandths faster than that of the Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren), second, and with the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) closing the ‘top 3’ of the day at just under three tenths. Therefore, Mercedes, which completed more than 140 laps with its two cars, once again leads with the ‘papaya’ and the ‘Scuderia’ pushing.

However, Ferrari also had problems, especially Lewis Hamilton who could barely run 44 laps and finished seventh, eight tenths behind his former teammate, and behind Lando Norris (McLaren), fourth; Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), fifth; and Isack Hadjar (Red Bull), sixth, on a day that was not entirely good for the Austrians either, with only 66 laps completed by the Frenchman, since his car lived most of the time in the garage due to a loss of pressure.

And, like the previous week, this Wednesday has also been difficult for Aston Martin, despite its obvious delay compared to the rest of the middle zone. The Spanish Fernando Alonso only did 28 laps in the morning, hampered by an engine problem that forced him to get off the AMR26 earlier than expected in tomorrow’s session.

In the afternoon, Stroll was also affected by this setback and had less time with his car – only 26 laps. In addition, he was involved in an off-track trip that caused a red flag, and then suffered another engine problem. The Asturian could not set a competitive time, but the Canadian did set a 1:35.974, 2.5 seconds off the lead, no longer the more than 4″ of the previous week.

In the Williams garage they seem to be happier because, at least, their cars were able to run without problems and Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon completed 110 laps between them. The Madrid native, who is little by little trying to get closer to a privileged time zone, closed his best lap at 1:35.113 to place eighth, 1.6 seconds behind Russell.

Those from Grove focused a lot on the collection of aerodynamic data, with Sainz’s FW48 covered in paraffin for many laps and minutes, in a session that ended with the simulation of departures by a dozen pilots.