Lewis Hamilton left it painfully late, which felt about right for a driver who’s made a habit of rewriting timelines.
As the first pre-season test of 2026 wound down in Barcelona, the Ferrari newcomer pinched top spot in the final exchanges, delivering an unofficial 1:16.348 that stood as the quickest lap of the five-day running. It was enough to knock George Russell off the top of the pile, with the Mercedes man’s Thursday benchmark of 1:16.445 ultimately left 0.097s in arrears.
There’s always an asterisk attached to testing timesheets — fuel loads, engine modes and run plans are the real story — but there’s no pretending the paddock doesn’t notice who lands the last punch. Ferrari will enjoy the optics: Hamilton in red, quickest at the flag, and doing it in the manner that plays best in headlines and highlights.
McLaren had been the team holding the moment. Lando Norris, the reigning world champion, was the first to really light up Friday afternoon, stepping into Oscar Piastri’s car after the break and firing in a 1:16.594 with around 90 minutes to go. That lap came before Norris switched attention to longer work, while several others waited until the final 15 minutes to bolt on soft tyres and chase one-lap numbers. Even then, Norris kept second on the day and remained firmly in the conversation on pure pace.
Ferrari’s own day was split cleanly down the middle. Charles Leclerc handled the morning programme and ended up third overall with a 1:16.653, before Hamilton took over for the afternoon and edged the session — and the week — at the end. If you’re looking for an early-season narrative hook, that’s a neat one: two drivers, one car, both seemingly able to produce the kind of lap time that forces rivals to glance a little longer at the timing screen than they’d like.
The broader picture from Barcelona is that teams are already behaving like it’s race week when the clock runs down. The “qualifying sim in the last 10 minutes” routine is alive and well in 2026, and Friday followed the script: long runs first, then a late flurry of soft-tyre attempts as track evolution peaks and everyone wants a number to take home.
Behind the headline times, the lap counts told their own story. Max Verstappen logged 118 laps — the most of any driver on Friday — as Red Bull returned to action after being absent since Isack Hadjar’s Day 2 accident. Verstappen ended the day fifth with a 1:17.586, not a number anyone will panic about in February, but the mileage will matter more than the stopwatch at this stage, particularly after a disrupted week.
Pierre Gasly had the eye-catching workload across the day in Alpine machinery too, racking up 160 laps and placing sixth on 1:17.707, while Haas had both of its drivers in the mix with Esteban Ocon replacing Oliver Bearman after the break. Ocon posted a 1:18.393, with Bearman’s earlier best a 1:18.423 — close enough to suggest Haas spent the day gathering data rather than auditioning for the front page.
Audi also shuffled its line-up, Nico Hülkenberg taking over from Gabriel Bortoleto in the afternoon. Their times — 1:19.870 for Hülkenberg and 1:20.179 for Bortoleto — won’t draw conclusions on the outside, but it’s another reminder that several teams used the final day primarily to cycle through programmes and drivers rather than chase a single lap.
The most anticipated appearance came further down the order. Fernando Alonso finally got his first taste of 2026 testing, completing 49 laps in the Aston Martin AMR26 and ending 11th with a 1:20.795, one spot ahead of Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas (1:20.920, 54 laps). It wasn’t a day built for fireworks — the lap count suggests a measured introduction rather than a full-blooded performance run — but Alonso simply being on track was enough to draw the garage-door crowds.
Two notable absences shaped the final-day running. Mercedes and Racing Bulls did not take part on Friday, having already reached their permitted maximum of three days’ testing across the five-day window. That regulation quirk meant Russell’s Thursday time remained Mercedes’ final headline, leaving Ferrari to “win” the week on paper without having to trade blows with a full Friday programme from Brackley.
For context, Hamilton’s 1:16.348 was also noted as 0.605s slower than the fastest lap of last year’s Spanish Grand Prix at the same venue, set by Piastri. It’s a tempting comparison, even if it’s one that rarely survives contact with the realities of tyres, conditions and developmental schedules.
So what should we take from it? Not that Ferrari has won anything — not yet. But Hamilton arriving, bedding in quickly enough to top the test with a late, tidy lap is exactly the kind of early signal Ferrari wanted to send. McLaren still looks every bit like a team that hasn’t forgotten how to build a quick car, Verstappen’s lap count hints at Red Bull focusing on fundamentals after a stutter, and the rest are, as ever, trying to separate genuine pace from the noise of February.
Unconfirmed Day 5 times (Barcelona):
1. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) 1:16.348 – 63 laps
2. Lando Norris (McLaren) 1:16.594 – 83 laps
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1:16.653 – 78 laps
4. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1:17.446 – 80 laps
5. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1:17.586 – 118 laps
6. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) 1:17.707 – 160 laps
7. Esteban Ocon (Haas) 1:18.393 – 85 laps
8. Oliver Bearman (Haas) 1:18.423 – 106 laps
9. Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) 1:19.870 – 78 laps
10. Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) 1:20.179 – 66 laps
11. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 1:20.795 – 49 laps
12. Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) 1:20.920 – 54 laps
