Charles Lecelrc edges out Lando Norris as drivers continue to get to grips with F1 2026.

Other than red flag stoppages for Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly - Alpine's second red flag of the test - the morning and afternoon sessions concluded with 'race resumption tests', as officials look ahead to the new season and new procedures. A VSC was followed by full Safety Car and then a full red flag, and while this morning's test was abandoned, this evening's went as planned.

The big disappointments of the day were Kimi Antonelli sidelined after just three laps this morning, likewise Isack Hadjar. Red Bull's issue was down to a hydraulics leak, and though he only completed one lap before the lunch break Hadjar completed a further 87 in the afternoon.

On the other hand, Mercedes opted to stick to its original run plan which meant that George Russell took over the car this afternoon, leaving Antonelli with just 3 laps on the board.

Yesterday the Italian lost track time due to a suspension issue, while today a problem with the power unit meant a complete change of engine, just in time for his teammate to take over.

In the opening phase of the day we were treated to some of the largest aero rakes ever witnessed, especially on the Racing Bull, as the teams continue to seek out every byte of data.

The 16 drivers on duty completed 1,244 laps, around 100 more than yesterday.

After Lewis Hamilton's none too flattering comments yesterday, drivers continue to criticise the new cars, and as they struggled to get used to them there were numerous lock-ups and excursions, with Turns 1, 10 and 7 continuing to be problematic.

"Not a lot of fun, to be honest," said Max Verstappen of the new cars. "I would say the right word is management," he added. "As a driver, the feeling is not very Formula 1 like. It feels a bit more like Formula E on steroids.

"As a pure driver, I enjoy driving flat out," said the four-time world champion. "and at the moment, you cannot drive like that. There's a lot going on. A lot of what you do as a driver, in terms of inputs, has a massive effect on the energy side of things. For me, that's just not Formula 1. Maybe it's better to drive Formula E!"

Other than posting the second-best time of the day, Norris completed the most laps 149, with Leclerc completing 139 and Bearman 130, while the Racing Bulls duo completed 133 in total and the Williams pair 131.

Normally, we would expect tomorrow to be all about posting representative times, but with the softest tyres on hold until next week, the focus will continue to be reliability, then again, as they said, to finish first, first you have to finish.

Despite the criticism of the cars, drivers are getting on with it, and we saw several examples of drivers stalking their prey using the new modes. Sometimes it appeared to work, sometimes it didn't.

It would appear that in the same way that the fans have to get used to this new way of racing, so do the drivers.

Tomorrow will be vital for Antonelli to get some laps in, likewise Stroll, and while there will be no qualifying sims we can expect to see a number of teams seek to close the gap to the leaders.

Leclerc took to the track shortly after 10, beginning his programme on the C3 compound, the only specification used during the first part of the day. The focus was on set-up checks and data collection, as well as on laying the foundations for next week's work. In total, he completed 62 laps, running consistently across different stint lengths to evaluate tyre behaviour in hot but progressively improving track conditions. His best time in the morning was a 1:34.273.

After the break, the other two tyre compounds also came into play. The Monegasque resumed on C3 tyres before running the C2 and C1 compounds to gather further comparative data across two long runs. In the afternoon, he completed 80 laps, setting a personal best of 1:35.107.

"My running for this first test is now complete," he said. "We've completed the programme without issues, which is always a positive.

"It's always nice to look at the lap times," he added, "but in testing they don't really mean much: the focus has to stay on ourselves and our work.

"The feeling in the car is okay, but it's still very early days. Today was about putting in as many laps as possible and completing all the tests we had planned. Now we keep working and continue building step by step."

Lando Norris piloted the MCL40 throughout both sessions, starting the morning with planned aerodynamic testing that included running aero rakes for a scheduled proportion of time before moving on to completing longer runs that gained important mileage and setup learning for McLaren's 2026 challenger.

The afternoon session focused more on race preparation and simulation, with Norris successfully completing the programme. During the stints, he had the possibility to experiment with the behaviour of the car in traffic and in overtaking manoeuvres, which gave him an insight into what racing could look like for the upcoming season under the new set of regulations. This activity continues to put the team on target for valuable learnings across the week as work is undertaken to gain knowledge on extracting maximum performance from the car setup and the different power unit modes. The team also completed further live pit stop practice towards the end of the day's running, which is an important part of our season preparation.

Oscar Piastri will return to action in the MCL40 tomorrow as the team concludes its running on the third and final day of Pre-Season Test 1.

Continuing the work of teammate Esteban Ocon yesterday, Oliver Bearman spent the morning collecting data exclusively running the C3 tyre, achieving 55 laps. In the afternoon, the run plan consisted of adding mileage on different compounds, utilizing the C1 for the first time this test. Enjoying reliability on track, Bearman's evening running finished with another 75 laps on the board, adding to the third highest tally of the day, recording a quickest time of 1:35.394.

"It was another good day," said Ayao Komatsu. "First and foremost, the car is reliable, and if we're out on track, we're always learning something. With Ollie in the car today, we completed various test programs, learned a lot, and made progress.

"There's still lots to work on," he continued, "but I'm really happy with how, slowly but surely, we're getting to grips with these new regulations and how to get the best out of the car. Tomorrow, we're focusing on getting answers to some remaining questions, as after today, we only have three days of testing until the first round in Melbourne, so tomorrow is a very important day."

"It was a good day," added Bearman, "we did a lot of laps, 130 to be precise. I'm happy that we had no mechanical issues and that we were able to get through our program for the day, work on the car, and continue the hard work Esteban had been doing yesterday.

"Generally, I was happy with the progress made throughout the day. Of course, this track changes a lot from night to day, but we were still able to get a good read in all conditions. I'm happy and excited to continue the work tomorrow morning."

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