Lewis Hamilton causes late red flag as Mercedes make major Bahrain statement

Kimi Antonelli overcame a disrupted Bahrain test to set the fastest time overall for Mercedes, as Lewis Hamilton caused a late red flag.

The Italian was limited to only three laps on Day 2 following a power unit change, and was not due in the car again until Friday afternoon, with George Russell assuming his final half-day of the test in the morning.

Russell set the pace with a 1:33.918 attempt, completing 78 laps, to best Hamilton and Max Verstappen behind for Ferrari and Red Bull, with the latter not returning for the afternoon running as he handed over to Isack Hadjar.

Antonelli initially did not get out on track until well into the second hour of the four-hour afternoon block, but immediately started to set quick lap times, indicating he was focusing on low fuel laps.

He initially climbed to third before going fastest on a 1:33.900, beating Russell by 0.018s. Shortly afterwards, Antonelli lowered his best lap to a test-best 1:33.669, ending a quarter of a second clear of Russell.

Hamilton maintained third place, half a second behind, but despite nearly 150 laps, the Ferrari broke down in the final 10 minutes, stopping at the bottom of the hill by Turn 8. 

However, it is possible that this was simply a 'run dry' test, which teams routinely complete, with running resuming for the final seven-and-a-half minutes, but under VSC conditions as the FIA conducted its own system checks. 

Oscar Piastri set a day-high 153 laps for McLaren, completing nearly three race distances

Hadjar slotted into sixth behind Verstappen as Esteban Ocon, Franco Colapinto, Oliver Bearman, and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10.

Alex Albon, Liam Lawson, Carlos Sainz, Gabriel Bortoleto, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, and Sergio Perez were also in action, with 12th-place Lawson the first driver to reach 100 laps on the day, with 119 in total. 

Check out the lap counts for each driver on the day below!