Lando Norris, McLaren, Bahrain International Circuit, 2025 pre-season test

Norris quickest in extended first test after power cut causes disruption

Formula 1

26th February 2025, 17:0226th February 2025, 23:17 | Written by Keith Collantine

Lando Norris set the quickest time in the opening day of testing for the 2025 Formula 1 season.

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The first day of running, split into two four-hour sessions, was interrupted by over an hour due to a sudden loss of power at the track. The Bahrain International Circuit operators issued a statement saying the outage was caused by a failure in an external substation.

Norris, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and George Russell were among those whose running was interrupted by the problem. However they regained most of their lost time as the teams agreed with the FIA and Formula One Management to extend the session by an hour.

Aside from the power cut, the session ran without any significant problems. Andrea Kimi Antonelli was quickest before the lunch break, setting a 1’31.428 in his Mercedes.

When the second session began, teams were slow at first to send their cars out, and the track remained silent for around 20 minutes. McLaren were particularly slow to join in, Norris remaining in the garage for well over one-and-a-half hours after the session restarted.

The quickest times were set by the drivers who ran in the second half of the day. Russell ended the test a tenth of a second shy of Norris, with Verstappen another tenth behind. Leclerc took fourth ahead of his former team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr, now driving for Williams.

2025 Bahrain pre-season testing day one lap times

Pos.	Car number	Driver	Team	Model	Best time	Gap	Laps	Tyres
1	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	MCL39	1’30.430		52	C3
2	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W16	1’30.587	0.157	70	C3
3	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	RB21	1’30.674	0.244	74	C3
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-25	1’30.878	0.448	71	C3
5	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Williams	FW47	1’30.955	0.525	68	C3
6	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	A525	1’31.353	0.923	72	C3
7	12	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	W16	1’31.428	0.998	78	C3
8	30	Liam Lawson	Red Bull	RB21	1’31.560	1.130	58	C3
9	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	FW47	1’31.573	1.143	63	C3
10	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	02	1’31.610	1.180	78	C3
11	6	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	02	1’31.631	1.201	76	C3
12	5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	C45	1’31.690	1.260	59	C3
13	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	SF-25	1’31.834	1.404	70	C3
14	7	Jack Doohan	Alpine	A525	1’31.841	1.411	68	C3
15	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	AMR25	1’31.874	1.444	46	C3
16	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	AMR25	1’31.949	1.519	42	C3
17	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	MCL39	1’32.084	1.654	66	C3
18	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	C45	1’32.169	1.739	55	C3
19	31	Esteban Ocon	Haas	VF-25	1’33.600	3.170	88	C3
20	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas	VF-25	1’35.522	5.092	72	C2

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27 comments on “Norris quickest in extended first test after power cut causes disruption”

mega
26th February 2025, 17:19

can we see the tyres that was used for those times?
1. El Pollo Loco
  26th February 2025, 17:26
  
  That’d require effort.
  1. mega
    26th February 2025, 17:39
    
    i laughed, thnx:)
2. Peyton
  26th February 2025, 17:30
  
  Everyone was on C3.
3. Sergiu Fotache (@swash)
  26th February 2025, 17:32
  
  1 Lando Norris 0 01:30.4 H
  2 George Russell 0.157 01:30.6 M
  3 Max Verstappen 0.244 01:30.7 M
  4 Charles Leclerc 0.448 01:30.9 M
  5 Carlos Sainz 0.525 01:31.0 M
  6 Pierre Gasly 0.923 01:31.4 M
  7 Kimi Antonelli 0.998 01:31.4 M
  8 Liam Lawson 1.13 01:31.6 M
  9 Alexander Albon 1.143 01:31.6 H
  10 Yuki Tsunoda 1.18 01:31.6 M
  11 Isack Hadjar 1.201 01:31.6 M
  12 Gabriel Bortoleto 1.26 01:31.7 M
  13 Lewis Hamilton 1.404 01:31.8 M
  14 Jack Doohan 1.411 01:31.8 M
  15 Fernando Alonso 1.444 01:31.9 M
  16 Lance Stroll 1.519 01:31.9 M
  17 Oscar Piastri 1.654 01:32.1 M
  18 Nico Hülkenberg 1.739 01:32.2 M
  19 Esteban Ocon 3.17 01:33.6 H
  20 Oliver Bearman 5.092 01:35.5 H
  1. El Pollo Loco
    26th February 2025, 17:36
    
    Thanks. So, there was a reason Albon was so much slower other than just running in the morning.
4. grat
  26th February 2025, 17:53
  
  Last list I saw (during the F1 feed) was that most of the top runners were on C3.
  
  Don’t remember how far down the list that went, though.
5. An Sionnach
  26th February 2025, 22:04
  
  The highlights video shows everyone on C3 other than Bortoleto and Bearman, who were on C2.
6. Dale
  26th February 2025, 23:09
  
  Wouldn’t make any difference, unless you have access to the teams test programs.
  A team trying to see how quickly they could switch on a set of hards and how long they would last under maximum stress, would have a totally different lap time outcome to a team on softs looking to see how far they could take them by being fairly gentle on them.
  Enjoy the cars, forget the times … until Australia.
El Pollo Loco
26th February 2025, 17:33

Albon only more than six-tenths behind Sainz. He better hope that conditions, tires and/or fuel load is behind that. Though I’m expecting Sainz to destroy Albon, but not by that much.

Aston Martin looking strong…
1. rprp
  26th February 2025, 17:44
  
  Albon’s time was on hard tyres, Sainz on medium.
2. Oople ZERO
  26th February 2025, 18:38
  
  Literally day 1 of testing. Calm yourself.
  1. Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
    26th February 2025, 19:05
    
    Exactly. A lot of team mates being fired if they went on today. Internetters eh
  2. El Pollo Loco
    26th February 2025, 19:27
    
    Did I not caveat my post with the fact that the time might not mean anything if they weren’t running similar conditions? lol. And, before you event posted I had replied above “ So, there were reasons Albon was so much slower other than just running in the morning.”
    
    But as long as you made yourself feel clever. More power to you…
Jere (@jerejj)
26th February 2025, 17:38

Good lap counts again, & especially for Haas over the entire day’s worth of track time.
I briefly thought Lance had an issue when he stopped & had orange light briefly lit above the airhole.
McLaren mechanics’ hilarious attempt to prevent photographing was rather useless since everyone had already seen the flo-vis anyway, which funnily covered the entire left car side.
As for the other rookies & drivers who’d changed teams, Sainz has exactly the same light pattern as all other Williams drivers since 2019, while Bortoleto seems to have the exact same pattern as Zhou.
Hadjar’s exactly matches Tsunoda’s, so back to normal service in the Red Bull B-team after Ricciardo’s & Lawson’s marginal exceptions.
Ocon, on the other hand, surprisingly has the exact same pattern as he had at Alpine, so I’m surprised that Haas suddenly gave freedom to drivers regarding DRS indication lights, which they didn’t give to any of their previous drivers.
Hamilton, Antonelli, & Lawson still remain for full indication light visuals.
1. Jere (@jerejj)
  26th February 2025, 17:46
  
  Flow-vis
2. Jere (@jerejj)
  26th February 2025, 18:48
  
  Edit due to belatedly finding out that Ferrari surprisingly, as a first-time thing, made an exception by allowing a driver to activate DRS from anywhere other than the top-left backside corner, & the two green lights also work the other way around to all other Ferrari drivers since the 2014 LCD display introduction in that they go lit when DRS gets activated rather than when it becomes activatable & off when activated.
  Every single driver has had the same activation method since 2011 & everyone since 2014 has had the indication lights operating the same way, with the only difference being Sainz having one more green light becoming lit, so suddenly making an exception on both fronts for Hamilton is weird.
  1. Riccard
    26th February 2025, 20:58
    
    Why not make things as easy for him as they can? They’re paying him millions; it makes sense they’d spare no expense to smooth his transition.
JackL
26th February 2025, 17:59

The McLaren definitely looked strong. Norris was clearly not hustling it, but it looked compliant and pliable, and did what he wanted.
Then the Ferrari probably looked second best, but definitely has some understeer issues. The Red Bull in Max’s hands was there or thereabouts too. The Aston Martin just looked dull. It didnt seem bad, but wasnt really responsive either.
Of course there’s the usual caveats about engine modes, fuel, tires, etc. But it didnt change that certain cars looked stable and were doing what the drivers wanted, and some werent.
1. Paul (@frankjaeger)
  26th February 2025, 20:48
  
  Thanks for the insight bud. You there in person or watching a feed? @JackL
  1. Fezza (@fezza)
    26th February 2025, 22:37
    
    What insight? He totally glossed over Mercedes as if it never existed lol I know LH isn’t there anymore, but still.
    1. El Pollo Loco
      27th February 2025, 16:59
      
      Sounds like he was parroting what he saw on other websites or random feeds, but that’s just as valid the analysis from RF, which is none.
PacificPR (@streydt)
26th February 2025, 18:28

Quite ironic that power cut. Needlessly testing under floodlights. So much for Net-Zero Carbon ideology.
1. Jere (@jerejj)
  26th February 2025, 18:50
  
  The circuit uses LED-lighting these days, which is an (more) environmentally-friendly light type.
  1. Postreader
    26th February 2025, 19:17
    
    Traditional metal halide floodlights are just as efficient as LED ones, actually. Not that it changes that Bahrain is 99% natural gas electricity anyway.
2. El Pollo Loco
  26th February 2025, 19:34
  
  Is it needless if they’re trying to get not only a full day of testing in, but also in multiple types of representative conditions. It’s great that F1 is trying to be as green as possible, but they’ve put themselves in a silly position by endlessly talking about their net zero goals for marketing reasons and constantly doing silly little things like reducing the total sets of tires by a set or two per team. So, now every choice they make it put under a microscope. They’d be better served by only publicizing all the smaller changes when they reach certain milestones.
El Pollo Loco
26th February 2025, 22:06

Did anyone else watch Sky’s coverage of the morning testing session? I was excited about seeing Lewis and Ferrari too, but it began to get frustrating when I wanted to learn what was going on with other cars. Let’s hope they’ve gotten out of their system for the next two days of testing.