F1 2025 pre-season testing – Day 2: Hamilton fastest as Red Bull hits trouble

Lewis Hamilton was fastest this morning in F1 pre-season testing, cutting more than a second from the quickest lap set yesterday by Lando Norris. The Ferrari driver was also faster than last year’s best testing lap, set by his predecessor, Carlos Sainz.

But while Ferrari’s second day of testing looked smooth, with Hamilton racking up 45 laps, there was trouble at Red Bull where Liam Lawson managed only 28 laps before heading to the pits with a loss of engine water pressure.

Elsewhere, George Russell put the most miles on his car, in a 71-lap session for Mercedes, which made him the only driver to exceed the 57-lap race distance. Oscar Piastri had a brush with Nico Hülkenberg in a clumsy effort to overtake the Sauber, while a brief shower brought everybody into the pits earlier in the day.

F1 arrived in Bahrain with the expectation of three days of uninterrupted sun-kissed running in 2025 pre-season testing.

But after a power cut and drizzle for the opening day on Wednesday, this morning brought more clouds, and enough rain that Haas sent Esteban Ocon out on intermediate tyres around an hour and a half into the session.

The team is just one of two — along with Aston Martin — to have selected wet weather rubber from their permitted allocation of 35 tyre sets from Pirelli; the forecast ahead of testing showed a 0% chance of rain.

A washout was avoided as the shower quickly stopped, but clouds still loom over the Sakhir circuit.

F1 2025 pre-season testing Day 1 – morning session

Today sees the final testing appearances for Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson, who will be in their Williams and Red Bull cars all day before their team-mates drive throughout the final day. The other teams are continuing to rotate their drivers between the morning and afternoon sessions.

Before the rain arrived, Lewis Hamilton hit the top of the time-sheet where he would remain all morning. He, as with many others, continued to assess their cars’ aerodynamic performance with aero rakes.

The Ferrari was fitted with antler-like appendages on the front wing that appeared to be measuring air pressure just ahead of the car. The run was witnessed by Ferrari chairman John Elkann, who flew in to watch the team’s new superstar driver from the pit garage.

Alpine, McLaren, Haas and Racing Bulls also fitted aero rakes for a second day, as work to correlate their cars’ real-world aerodynamics with those predicted in simulations continued.

Mercedes appeared to be focused on maximising its mileage at the start of the day, and George Russell racked up 71 laps during the session.

Red Bull could only dream of such distance after Liam Lawson headed for the pits an hour before the end of the session with only 28 laps under his belt. The team later confirmed an engine water pressure issue and was focused on repairing the power unit for the afternoon.

Half an hour later, Oscar Piastri and Nico Hülkenberg were also headed to their garages after coming together as Piastri lunged up the inside of the Sauber driver, who had left space, then ran wide and knocked Hülkenberg’s rear wheel with his front wing. There didn’t appear to be any lasting damage.

By this time, Hamilton had set his fastest time of the morning: a 1min 29.379sec lap on the medium-compound C3 tyre, which was over a second faster than Lando Norris’s time-sheet-topping effort yesterday. It’s also quicker than last year’s best time of 1min 29,921sec set by his Ferrari predecessor Carlos Sainz.

But Sainz wasn’t quite overshadowed: his 1min 30.090sec effort using the harder C2 compound made him third fastest on the morning, behind George Russell.

What will they manage this afternoon?

F1 2025 pre-season testing Day 1 morning session times