Hamilton quickest as Barcelona F1 shakedown concludes

Track conditions improved into the final evening at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, allowing Hamilton to produce a 1m16.348s on soft tyres and end the week quickest overall.

It edged him just under a tenth clear of George Russell’s benchmark from Thursday, with Mercedes already sidelined after using its full three-day allocation.

Ferrari had shown steady form throughout the week and the late headline time underlined a productive final day, following a solid morning from Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque led the early running with a 1m16.653s before handing the SF-26 over to Hamilton for the afternoon.

Hamilton said he left the shakedown feeling positive after his first proper experience in the 2026 car.

“It’s been a really enjoyable week, honestly,” he said.

“I think a huge amount of work over the winter, on my personal side, but what the team have done over the winter to make changes going into the test.

“To see the mileage that we’ve been able to get the last couple of days due to just so much great work from all the people back at the factory, which I’m really grateful for because having consistency, not having problems.

“Of course there’s always small things, but we didn’t really have any downtime moments – I’m sure they could potentially come over the next weeks – but otherwise just a really, really solid couple of days.

McLaren also finished the shakedown on an upward note after a disrupted Thursday.

Lando Norris jumped into the car in the afternoon and briefly held the best time with a 1m16.594s, while Oscar Piastri had earlier completed a trouble-free morning session to end the day fourth overall.

“It was good. Nice to get some good laps on the board this morning – a much smoother day than the first two we’ve had, so that was nice,” Piastri said.

“I feel like I got into a pretty good rhythm, was able to start to feel what the car is actually like, which was nice.

“I tried a few things already to see how we can improve it and stuff like that, but just trying running it in different figurations and different settings and stuff like that to see what it’s like for race weekends.

“All in all I think it was a pretty successful morning.”

Norris said the focus had remained firmly on understanding the new car rather than outright pace.

“It’s so easy to get caught up into comparisons,” he said.

“But I think we understood a lot, both in lower-fuel stuff, higher-fuel stuff, the tyres”

Red Bull returned to action for the first time since Tuesday, with Max Verstappen completing a full day of running after Isack Hadjar’s earlier crash limited the team’s program.

Verstappen logged extensive mileage on Friday and described the shakedown as “overall pretty decent.”

“The first morning I didn’t get to do too many laps with the weather basically, but today was good,” Verstappen said.

“I did a lot of laps, we learned a lot. Still a lot of things that we want to look into and do better, but that’s normal I guess.

“In general for us with the new engine, to do the amount of laps that we did is very nice and it’s a good start for us.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing)

“So, yeah, positive, but it’s still very early days.”

One of the standout efforts of the day came from Alpine, where Pierre Gasly amassed the highest lap count on Friday as the Enstone squad continued to bank mileage with its new Mercedes-powered package.

Haas and Audi were also busy, with Ollie Bearman, Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto all contributing to heavy running during the final sessions.

Fernando Alonso finally made his shakedown debut for Aston Martin, completing a full program after Lance Stroll’s limited outing on Thursday.

Alonso logged more than 60 laps in the AMR26 and said the first proper day in the car was encouraging.

“For us it was really the very first days, so I think we had a positive one,” he said.

Every team bar Williams appeared during the week in Barcelona, with the Grove squad opting to wait until official pre-season testing.

Mercedes and Racing Bulls had already wrapped up their running by Thursday, while most of the field spread their three permitted days across the five-day window.

Although lap times remained unofficial and fuel loads varied, Hamilton’s late flyer ensured Ferrari left Barcelona on a positive note, as attention now turns to Bahrain, where the first official pre-season test of 2026 begins on February 11.

Results: Formula 1 pre-season shakedown Day 5 (unofficial)