Dubai: Red Bull may have endured a difficult 2026 campaign, but the team sent an early warning to its rivals on the opening day of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
Despite finishing second and fourth on the timing sheets, Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen were regarded by their rivals as the drivers who set the pace underneath the headline numbers.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped the second practice session, finishing just 0.099 seconds ahead of Hadjar, while Verstappen ended the day 0.257 seconds behind the Ferrari and one place behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth in the second Ferrari, 0.305 seconds away from Leclerc’s benchmark.
However, the order did not tell the full story.
Verstappen did not complete a qualifying-style lap on the soft compound, while Leclerc believed Hadjar had also left time on the table during his fastest effort.
That led Leclerc to identify Red Bull as the team currently looking strongest at the circuit.
Leclerc said: “Everybody is very close. It’s been a very difficult day overall.
“The track conditions were very tricky. The track was quite dirty and very slippery so things will evolve and change a lot from today until tomorrow and we have to be on the good side of that anticipating that in the best possible way.
“I felt quite good with the car but I still feel like the Red Bull is standing out this weekend so far.
“Isack did some mistakes in the last part of the lap and Max didn’t do the lap on the soft tyres.
“I don’t think we are the most competitive and also the Mercedes is a bit difficult to understand. I’m sure once Mercedes put everything together they will be very strong. Normally when they put something on the car it works.”
Verstappen deliberately avoided a soft-tyre qualifying run as he instead concentrated on race preparation ahead of the weekend, with rain forecast to affect conditions.
The four-time world champion described the opening day as a “decent start” and “positive”.
Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache was also encouraged by the team’s performance after admitting there had been some uncertainty over how its latest package would perform at the circuit.
“We were not very optimistic starting the weekend. The main aspect was to evaluate the package we put in Baku in different type of corners than low speed.
“It looks to be working better than the previous package. Relative performance is difficult to judge but we were surprisingly happy with where we were today.”
Red Bull’s promising showing comes after a season in which the team has struggled to consistently match the leading pace.
Mercedes, meanwhile, spent Friday assessing a major upgrade package, with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli ending the session seventh and eighth respectively.
The upgrade is Mercedes’ first significant development since the Canadian Grand Prix in June, but Russell said tyre temperatures and degradation remained a major concern.
“I’m feeling the downforce in some of the corners but with this amount of tyre overheating and degradation that trumps everything. So we just need to get on top of that overnight,. That’s more of a set-up rather than the upgrade itself and go from there.”
Russell was then asked whether Mercedes could challenge for pole position when qualifying takes place on Saturday.
“Currently, Verstappen looks very fast and the race pace of the McLaren looked very quick but never say never.”
Verstappen’s long-run pace also caught the eye, with the Red Bull appearing particularly competitive once tyre wear and stint length were taken into consideration.
The evidence from Friday suggested the leading four teams remain closely matched, however, with drivers also having to contend with hot conditions and an unusually abrasive track surface.
The unusual Bahrain-Malaysia setting is the result of changes to this year’s calendar.
The Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix were cancelled earlier in the year because of the conflict in the Middle East, but Bahrain pushed to retain its race and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa reached an agreement for the event to be staged in Malaysia.
The weekend has consequently taken on a distinctly Bahraini feel, with a number of Bahrain-related activities taking place around the circuit.
