Russell fastest as stray bus and smashed window bring bizarre end to F1 pre-season testing

George Russell was fastest on the final day of 2025 F1 pre-season testing, with a run that pipped Max Verstappen by just two-hundredths of a second in the closing minutes of the session.

The Mercedes driver also racked up a respectable 91 laps in the afternoon, beaten only by the 103 of Esteban Ocon, who finished the pre-season test with the highest lap count of all — 260 laps in total

But the Friday of Bahrain testing is likely to go down in F1 history as the day that was interrupted by two bizarre stoppages. The red flags flew first in the morning when a window fell out of the race officials’ platform next to the finish line, shattering glass across the circuit.

Then, ten minutes into the afternoon session, cars were ordered back to their garages again: the reason becoming quickly clear when a bus lumbered into view on the run-off to a heavy braking area.

Cars were back out on track within a few minutes, but there’s no explanation as yet of how the bus managed to make its way into a live F1 testing session.

A brief red flag for a bus on the track in testing in the run-off area 🚩 pic.twitter.com/F9gY5sl9p9

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) February 28, 2025

It wasn’t just the circuit experiencing mishaps: an hour and a half into the morning session, Oliver Bearman lost a chunk of his Haas’s engine cover at speed on the main straight and had to limp back to the pits for repair work, while Gabriel Bortoleto was stuck in his garage for more than an hour and a half, with work going on behind screens.

Norris was one of the many drivers to be caught out by the windy conditions on track in the morning when his car slid at Turn 4 and he ran onto the separate Inner Track, having to find reverse to get back onto the live circuit. He had cited oversteer issues, which could be have been the cause for that and another off.

In the afternoon, there was also a mid-session driver change for Aston Martin: Lance Stroll had been scheduled to take part in the morning session, but swapped with Fernando Alonso due to illness. Stroll did manage 34 laps in the afternoon, but then had to get out of the car, giving Alonso a final blast before the end, when the fastest laps of the day were set.

Russell’s leading time was 1min 29.545sec, which gave him bragging rights over Verstappen. Both drivers were on a medium compound C4 tyre Then came Alex Albon on a slightly softer C4 tyre — another strong showing for the team after new team-mate Carlos Sainz topped the time-sheets the day before with a time that was 0.2sec faster than Russell’s Day 3 effort. It means that, for the second year in a row, Sainz set the quickest lap of testing overall on the second day.

But lap times have far less meaning in testing: the McLarens were only fourth and eleventh fastest on the final day, but their pace over the three days in Bahrain has left few in doubt that they will be a force to be reckoned with in 2025.

The same goes for Ferrari: Charles Leclerc was fastest in the morning session, ahead of Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli but slipped down the rankings during the afternoon’s much faster running when team-mate Lewis Hamilton only covered 47 laps, ending the session with a lengthy stint in the pits.

Albon racked up the most laps of the day, which unsurprising given that only he and Max Verstappen were the only drivers to spend all day in the car. The rest of the teams rotated their drivers between morning and evening sessions, making Esteban Ocon’s total of 103 laps in the afternoon even more impressive.

At the opposite end of the scale, Bortoleto only managed 35 laps in his interrupted morning session. Hamilton and Stroll were the only other drivers of the 18 in action not to manage a race distance of 57 laps in the day.

F1 2025 pre-season testing Day 3 times