Round 16 of the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with Friday practice at the Sepang International Circuit as teams prepared for Sunday's 56-lap Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

FP1 witnessed Formula 1 cars return to Sepang for the first time in nine years as the opening practice session of the weekend enabled the field to gain valuable track data - in particular grip levels around the 5.543-kilometer (3.444-mile), 15-turn circuit. TGR Haas F1 Team drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman sampled both the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium and Red soft tire compounds during the hour-long session. Fastest on softs, Ocon placed P14 with a best lap of 1:40.158, with teammate Bearman directly behind in P15 on a 1:40.311.

The weather forecast looked ominous for FP2 later in the afternoon, but the threatened rain ultimately failed to materialize. However, teams wasted no time in getting on track to complete their run programs while dry conditions prevailed. A short stint on medium tires was followed by a switch to softs for both Ocon and Bearman. Ocon's best lap of the session, a 1:39.361 was set on the earlier medium compound, while Bearman's fastest effort of 1:39.706 was set on softs - placing P14 and P16 respectively on the timings. Both drivers then worked on car balance and set-up on high-fuel through to the checkered flag.

TGR Haas F1 Team ran a total of 105 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 - 53 by Bearman, with 52 from Ocon.

Olie Bearman: "It's been a tough day for us, to be honest. We looked a bit less competitive than what we were probably expecting on low-fuel. On high-fuel, it looks a bit better, but in general, it's been a tough day for us. On my side, I've been learning the track as well and I feel like I've made progress, but in FP2, I felt a bit of a lack in confidence, which adds up to a lot of lap time around here. I'm confident we can do a better job tomorrow."

Esteban Ocon: "It was a positive day. First of all, it's an amazing track to drive again. I remembered it back then as awesome, but driving it again is pure joy every lap. I had fun today, it's been positive, and we improved the car from FP1 to FP2. Although we still have work to do tonight, we look healthy on the car-side, and it's performing as it should, so it's been positive and we need to keep going like that."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was a bit of a tricky Friday. On Esteban's side of the garage it was pretty clean, he did a good job. Of course, we've got things to improve but it was a clean pair of sessions. The same cannot be said on Ollie's side of the garage, where I think we've still got this issue with parts, where putting a certain part or a different part doesn't necessarily behave exactly the same. We had very different feedback across the garage in FP1, and Ollie was much happier in FP1 compared to FP2, and that wasn't down to track conditions. We really have to dive into this one - we have some ideas, but tonight we need to solve it, because we could then get to the limit of this package and fight in Q2. If we don't do that, we'll be out in Q1, so it's critical that we find out what's going on with Ollie's car."