F1 Bahrain pre-season testing live commentary and updates - day 1

Hamilton has spun in Turn 1, Fil Cleeren reports. The Ferrari driver got going again without damage.

Franco Colapinto has stopped on track in the Alpine.

Esteban Ocon goes top with a 1m37.668s on soft tyres.

Apologies. Contrary to what we said earlier, the lap tally displayed in our live timing is the number of laps on each car's current tyre set (regardless of pitstops).

Here's the lap tally so far:

Racing Bulls (Red Bull Ford) - 37
Williams (Mercedes) - 27
Haas (Ferrari) - 23
Red Bull (Red Bull Ford) - 22
Ferrari - 20
Audi - 18
Mercedes - 18
Aston Martin (Honda) - 17
Alpine (Mercedes) - 17
McLaren (Mercedes) - 16
Cadillac (Ferrari) - 16

Both Piastri and Russell have now lapped in 1m36s.

All cars but the Alpine have now completed over 20 laps. Williams is on 42, Racing Bulls on 39, Red Bull on 37.

Ocon sets a personal best in the first sector, doesn't improve in the second...

That's a 1m37.707 on soft tyres. No improvement.

Meanwhile, it's a race to 50 laps between Williams' Sainz and Racing Bulls' Lindblad. The British team is leading 48 laps to 47, with both cars currently on track.

Alpine's Colapinto has rejoined after causing a red flag earlier.

Testing, testing, is this thing on? 

Thanks to Ben for taking us through the morning so far, it's Owen here with you for the next few hours. What's everyone looking forward to seeing over the next three days in Bahrain? 

Verstappen is currently the quickest driver of the test so far with his 1m35.433s tour of the Bahrain International Circuit.

His Red Bull-Ford power unit is also clocking up the miles in the Red Bull and Racing Bulls cars - here's a bit more about how that venture came into being.  

And that difference is even more stark up front, as you can see when it's side-by-side with the Ferrari SF-26: 

Audi isn't the only new team this year, as 2026 also sees American automaker Cadillac join the grid. 

Veteran racer Valtteri Bottas is in action for the outfit today, and has so far managed 35 laps in the car with a best time of 1m39.150s on the hard tyres. 

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images

Here's a recap of everything that's gone on in the first test session in Bahrain: 

While we wait for the on-track action to resume after lunch, let's work through some of your questions about the new era of Formula 1 that kicks off this year. 

We had a query raised about the size of the battery packs in the new power units, as teams will be harvesting much more electrical energy this year.  

The Energy Store, as they’re called in the F1 rues, don’t have a set cap, but the size that team's use is dictated by the weight requirements and the amount of electrical energy that is harvested. Our resident tech expert Jake Boxall-Legge says most teams will stick to a 4MJ unit, because that's the most that they can charge it up per lap.