Lewis Hamilton units searing tempo on closing day of secret F1 2026 take a look at

Lewis Hamilton produced the quickest lap time for Ferrari as F1 2026’s first week of testing drew to a detailed in Barcelona.

The seven-time world champion left it late to set a brand new benchmark as he strapped on a set of sentimental tyres and flexed the muscle mass of Ferrari’s SF-26 to pump in a lap time of 1m16.348 seconds.

Hamilton’s effort usurped the earlier quickest time set by former Mercedes teammate George Russell on the penultimate day of the behind closed doorways five-day shakedown by a tenth. 

Whereas lap occasions alone must be taken with a somewhat massive pinch of salt at this early stage, it is going to act as encouragement for each Ferrari and Hamilton that higher occasions lie forward after a bitterly disappointing 2025 marketing campaign.

Ferrari not solely topped the timesheets in Barcelona, however their 2026 automobile ran reliably and logged a powerful quantity of mileage, one thing Hamilton alluded to after his first dry-weather working on Thursday.

Hamilton’s late glory run dislodged reigning world champion Lando Norris from high spot, the place he had spent a lot of the afternoon having posted a 1m16.594s in his McLaren MCL40.

The 41-year-old Briton’s teammate, Charles Leclerc, who additionally dipped into the 1m16s with a gentle tyre run within the morning session, ended up third-quickest forward of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. 

Max Verstappen was lastly in a position to resume testing for Crimson Bull, who sat out on the fourth day as they awaited spare components following Isack Hadjar’s heavy shunt on Tuesday.

The four-time world champion recovered from a small off at Flip 10 within the morning to finish up fifth-quickest with a lap of 1m17.586s.

Alonso will get first style of Newey’s Aston

Fernando Alonso stole consideration early within the day as he received his first style of Adrian Newey’s eye-catching Aston Martin AMR26, which made its highly-anticipated debut within the closing hour of working on Thursday.

The 2-time world champion managed a complete of 61 laps with a greatest time of 1m20.795s to put himself eleventh as he upped the tempo for Aston Martin after their sluggish begin.

Pierre Gasly accomplished probably the most laps of a single driver as he racked up 164 on a productive day in his Mercedes-powered Alpine on his approach to sixth within the timesheet. 

Valtteri Bottas was twelfth and slowest for Cadillac, over 4 seconds off the tempo.

Early 2026 favourites Mercedes, who topped the timesheets on Thursday and Friday, weren’t in motion on Friday having already accomplished their three permitted days of working in an announcement opening take a look at.

Apart from Mercedes, Racing Bulls and Williams – who missed the primary week of testing after encountering construct delays with their FW48 – the opposite eight groups have been on observe to finish their respective programmes.

F1 will subsequent head to Bahrain for 2 official pre-season assessments on 11-13 and 18-20 February.