Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin live a day to forget and Mercedes is once again the fastest in Bahrain

The Spanish driver Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) experienced a dramatic afternoon on the second day of the second week of official testing of the Formula 1 preseason, after seeing his AMR26 stop while performing a race simulation, in a session led by the Italian Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes).

The day in Sakhir began with good news for those from Silverstone. On the fifth day of testing, Fernando Alonso was able to ride 40 laps, without focusing on the times and with short runs, on a tomorrow without setbacks, in what seemed like a step forward after pessimistic days.

But in the hours of testing after the break, the AMR26 piloted by the Spaniard stopped in the middle of a race simulation in which the two-time world champion had already accumulated 26 laps. The car began to behave strangely in Turn 4, with Alonso slowing down until he stopped due to what appears to be a problem related to the power unit.

At a purely performance level, the Spaniard completed 68 laps in total and closed the day with a time of 1:37.472, more than 4 seconds off the lead, in the Asturian’s last reference before the World Cup premiere in Australia.

On the other hand, Kimi Antonelli made the best time (1:32.803), ahead of the Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren), just 58 thousandths (1:32.861); and the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), three tenths behind (1:33.162), who was also the driver who lapped the most with 139 laps at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Another surprise of the day was Ferrari’s rear wing, and the mechanism by which the upper flap rotates 180 degrees, in a decision that no other team has carried out. With this novelty, Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, six tenths behind Antonelli, with a time of 1:33.408, narrowly beating Lando Norris (McLaren) who was also six tenths behind after leading in the morning.

Thursday’s session ended, after the incident with the AMR26, with many precautions to take the car off the track, with the drivers carrying out many race tests and collecting data that for some drivers would be the last before Australia. This Friday, it will be the turn of the Spanish Carlos Sainz with his Williams.