Antonelli fastest, Lawson spins in first morning of test at Bahrain

Andrea Kimi Antonelli put Mercedes on top in the morning session of the first day of testing for the 2025 season.

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The 18-year-old set a best time of 1’31.428 at the Bahrain International Circuit. He was driving the team’s new W16 chassis, which turned a wheel for the first time at the track yesterday.

Antonelli, who led the drivers out when the test began, lapped 2.3 seconds off the pole position time at last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Most drivers got within half a second of that time as teams made a productive start to testing, completing the first four hours of running without a single red flag interruption.

Liam Lawson suffered the biggest mishap of any driver, spinning to a halt temporarily at the exit of turn three. The new Red Bull driver had run wide onto the exit kerb where the RB21 snapped away from him. He brought it to a halt without incurring any damage.

The majority of drivers completed more than a race distance – 57 laps – at the home of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Antonelli completed the most, logging one more lap than Yuki Tsunoda in his Racing Bulls. Fernando Alonso covered the least distance of anyone for.

All 10 drivers are scheduled to hand their cars over to their team mates for this afternoon’s session.

Bahrain test day one morning lap times

Pos.	Car number	Driver	Team	Model	Best time	Gap	Laps
1	12	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	W16	1’31.428		78
2	30	Liam Lawson	Red Bull	RB21	1’31.560	0.132	58
3	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	FW47	1’31.573	0.145	63
4	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	02	1’31.610	0.182	77
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	SF-25	1’31.834	0.406	70
6	7	Jack Doohan	Alpine	A525	1’31.841	0.413	68
7	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	AMR25	1’31.874	0.446	46
8	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	MCL39	1’32.084	0.656	65
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	C45	1’32.169	0.741	55
10	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas	VF-25	1’35.522	4.094	72

Liam Lawson, Red Bull, Bahrain International Circuit, 2025 pre-season test — Lawson spun his Red Bull, but continued

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9 comments on “Antonelli fastest, Lawson spins in first morning of test at Bahrain”

Jere (@jerejj)
26th February 2025, 11:07

Decent lap amounts, no major issues, & only a handful of yellows, so overall, a clean opening four-hour session.
1. Denis (@denis1304)
  26th February 2025, 12:07
  
  Any visible reasons Alonso and Hulkenberg made so little laps?
  1. Luke S (@joeypropane)
    26th February 2025, 12:28
    
    2 most experienced drivers that were running – not going to need the same amount of laps as the majority of the rookies.
    1. pastaman
      26th February 2025, 12:54
      
      The laps are not for the drivers…
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
26th February 2025, 11:26

Not really surprised that rookies are at or near the top. They’ll be using every second they have to get as much out of the cars as they can.
More experienced drivers will be focusing more on data collection and planned tests I’d expect.

I doubt any team will show their full hand over the next 3 days.
1. Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
  26th February 2025, 13:26
  
  These rookies had 15 grand prix starts between them, Antonelli’s the only newcomer… but good on them for not binning it or bringing out any red flags.
Sumedh
26th February 2025, 12:32

Why is Haas so slow over each of the 72 laps they did?
1. schooner (@schooner)
  26th February 2025, 13:37
  
  Seems a bit odd, even for the first morning of testing with a rookie driver.
2. Le Jimster (@lejimster82)
  26th February 2025, 14:05
  
  Yeah, I was wondering this too but it became apparent Haas are focusing on race runs. There was an interview with Bearman during the second session confirming they were focusing on long runs.
  Not too surprising as they chose to focus on long runs in pre-season testing last year as tyre deg was a weakness in the 2023 car. If they follow a similar plan this year they can do a more direct comparison.