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Charles Leclerc has instructed his Ferrari team to ignore the headline times he set on his final day in the car at the first Bahrain test.

Following a split in driving duties on Wednesday with Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc had the full day in the SF-26 on Thursday, racking up 62 laps in the morning before 80 in the afternoon for a a total of 142.

The Monegasque set the overall fastest time of the day, with a morning lap of 1:34.273, nearly half-a-second faster than world champion Lando Norris in the McLaren.

Given he has now had his allotted day-and-a-half in the car at this test, Leclerc will hand over to Hamilton for the full day on Friday, with Leclerc keen for Ferrari not to get distracted by the headline time he set.

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

"It’s always nice to look at the lap times, 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."

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