Yes, you read that correctly, the morning session was interrupted by rain. The only two teams to bring intermediate tyres are Alpine and Haas. During the period where the track was wet, we saw Ocon venture out for some laps on the intermediates, although the track was not wet enough.
Driver lineup wise, it was very similar to day one except Lawson drove all day in the Red Bull and Sainz was in all day for Williams.
Talking of Sainz, he topped the time sheet at the end of the day, he also did the greatest number of laps for one single driver with 127. Very positive signs for Williams. They have said that the most of their focus has switched to 2026, but they have continued to develop the chassis that they used last season. The Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc were 2nd and 3rd respectively.
| Mercedes | 158 |
| VCARB | 140 |
| Kick | 136 |
| HaaS | 135 |
| Ferrari | 128 |
| Williams | 127 |
| Mclaren | 121 |
| Alpine | 120 |
| Aston Martin | 102 |
| Red Bull | 91 |
With temperatures unusually low in Bahrain it’s even harder to judge how teams are faring and how the order stands up. However, one thing to note from watching it on TV was the long run pace of Lando Norris. He was significantly quicker than anyone else on long run pace, however whether this will have been helped by the lower temperatures meaning less tyre degradation, only time will tell.
The only real drama from the drivers came when Piastri mad contact with the rear of Hulkenberg’s Sauber in turn 8 in the morning session. Thankfully for both drivers there was no significant damage that caused them to lose significant time.
Most of the teams had some decent running although Liam Lawson lost some time whilst Red Bull worked to resolve a water pressure failure and the team saying they needed to “service” the car in the afternoon session, which seems a bit odd as no one else needed to service their cars. Regardless of the issue for Red Bull everyone seems strangely pleased with their cars which is quite unusual. However, as this is the last season of the current rules, we generally see quite a close field.
1) Carlos Sainz, Williams, 1:29.348, 127 laps
2) Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, 1:29.379, 45 laps
3) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1:29.431, 83 laps
4) George Russell, Mercedes, 1:29.778, 71 laps
5) Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, 1:29.784, 87 laps
6) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, 1:30.229, 57 laps
7) Liam Lawson, Red Bull, 1:30.252, 91 laps
8) Jack Doohan, Alpine, 1:30.368, 80 laps
9) Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 1:30.430, 40 laps
10) Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls, 1:30.675, 94 laps
11) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, 1:30.700, 45 laps
12) Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls, 1:30.793, 46 laps
13) Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 1:30.821, 44 laps
14) Lando Norris, McLaren, 1:30.882, 77 laps
15) Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber, 1:31.057, 80 laps
16) Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber, 1:31.457, 56 laps
17) Esteban Ocon, Haas, 1:33.071, 69 laps
18) Oliver Bearman, Haas, 1:34.372, 66 laps
The final day looks like it should be warmer and sunnier, and we may well see some qualifying simulations towards the end of the day.
The DRS Zone 
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