Verstappen finishes highly productive first test day in Bahrain in P2
Published on 11 February 2026 by Kees-Jan Koster
Max Verstappen enjoyed an extremely productive first day of testing in Bahrain. With no fewer than 136 trouble-free laps to his name, Max was by far the most productive driver of the day. With a time of 1:34.798, the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver ended the day in P2, just 0.129 seconds slower than the fastest man, Lando Norris in the McLaren.
After a productive morning with 65 laps completed and the fastest lap time of 1:35.433, Verstappen also got back behind the wheel of the RB22 after the lunch break. Like the Dutchman, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon and rookie Arvid Lindblad were also scheduled to drive the entire day. The other teams swapped their drivers for the four-hour afternoon session.
At 3:00 pm local time the green flag was waved, with the temperature in Bahrain having risen to 31°C and the track temperature to 38°C. Many teams were still busy working on their cars after the lunch break, so it took a while before the drivers went out on track. After 20 minutes Verstappen headed out with a set of medium C2 tyres fitted. He completed a 12-lap long run before returning to the pits. The team then switched to the hard C1 tyres, on which Verstappen set a 1:35.631 – just two tenths slower than his fastest time in the morning, which had been set on the quicker medium compound.
Shortly afterwards the red flag was shown for the second time today. Nico Hülkenberg had stopped before Turn 14 with his Audi R26. After this brief interruption the session resumed. Verstappen went back out on the same set of hard tyres and completed a long run with consistent lap times in the high 1:37s.
Halfway through the afternoon session, Verstappen went out on the soft C3 compound for the first time today. By then he had already completed 100 laps. On the fresh rubber, Max improved the fastest lap of the day to a 1:34.830. He followed that with a long run on the soft tyres, opening with a low 1:37 before lap times began to drop off due to tyre wear.
With just over an hour left on the clock, it was Lando Norris who snatched the fastest time from Verstappen. The reigning champion clocked a 1:34.669 on the medium compound tyres. In the final phase Verstappen went back out on the C3s once more, and although he was more than half a second quicker than Norris in the first sector, Max was ultimately unable to beat Norris’s time. With a 1:34.798 he did shave a little off his own best, but he finished the day in P2, just 0.129 seconds behind Norris. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) ended up P3, more than half a second behind Norris, with Esteban Ocon (Haas) in fourth place.
With 136 laps, Max was the driver with the most mileage to his name today. In total, Verstappen covered 731 kilometres – more than two Grand Prix distances. However, the Williams team completed the most laps overall, with 145 laps split between Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon on the first test day with the new FW48, after the team had missed the first test in Barcelona.
On the other hand, it was a disappointing afternoon for the Racing Bulls team. A fluid leak was discovered on the VCARB 03 after the morning session, meaning Lindblad did not go out in the afternoon. At Aston Martin, precautionary checks were carried out on the Honda engine, leaving Lance Stroll with just 36 laps to his name.
Verstappen will have a day off on Thursday. Team-mate Isack Hadjar will drive the RB22, after which Verstappen will be back behind the wheel on Friday morning. Hadjar, in turn, will round off the three-day test on Friday afternoon.
