45 laps for Lewis Hamilton in the morning, 84 for Charles Leclerc in the afternoon. Tomorrow, the Monegasque gets the day’s work underway

Sakhir, 27 February 2025 – Today’s test took place in Bahrain but one could be forgiven for thinking it was happening at a European track. Not only was it cool, but there was even some rain. It arrived halfway through the morning and meant that almost all the teams, including Scuderia Ferrari HP, kept their cars in the garage for a while. Lewis Hamilton completed 45 laps (243 kilometres) before handing over the SF-25 to Charles Leclerc who racked up 84 laps (454 kilometres) making a daily total of 129 laps (697 kilometres).

Morning. As was the case yesterday in Sakhir, Lewis was first out on track in the SF-25, gathering more data for the team, but also beginning to push harder to get a better understanding of the new car. The Englishman spent the entire time on the C3 tyres, switching between used and new sets. As mentioned, there was a break in the session when the rain started to get heavier, but as soon as it blew over, Lewis was back at work, setting his best time of 1’29”379, making him the fastest of the morning runners. His two day total is 115 laps (622 kilometres).

Afternoon. In the lunch break, the mechanics went through the usual process of adjusting the cockpit settings to Charles’ liking and he went out shortly after the light at the end of the pit lane turned green. The Monegasque started off on a used set of C3 tyres, before fitting a new one and picking up the pace. There were again a few more drops of rain, not enough to stop the cars running on track, but enough to impact performance. Charles worked through the planned programme including a qualifying and race simulation. Leclerc’s time on his flying lap was 1’29”431 on the C3 compound, even though he also used the softer C4. For the long run, he used the C3, C2 and C1 compounds. Over the past two days, he has driven 155 laps (838 kilometres), bringing the Scuderia Ferrari HP total to 270 laps (1460 kilometres).
 
Final day. Tomorrow is the final day of the test and this time, Leclerc will be running in the morning, so that after the lunch break it will be Hamilton’s turn to go for a qualifying and race simulation

MORNING SESSION

DRIVER: Lewis Hamilton #44
LAPS COMPLETED: 45
DISTANCE COMPLETED: 243 km
FASTEST LAP: 1’29″379 (on C3)
TYRES USED: C3
WEATHER: Cloudy, dry, then rain, then dry
TEMPERATURES: Air: 15°C, Track: 18°C

AFTERNOON SESSION

DRIVER: Charles Leclerc #16
LAPS: 84
DISTANCE COMPLETED: 454 km
FASTEST LAP: 1’29″431 (on C3)
TYRES USED: C1, C2, C3, C4
WEATHER: Cloudy, dry, drops
TEMPERATURES: Air: 16°C, Track: 17°C

LEWIS HAMILTON #44

It’s been another positive day for us in Bahrain. We’re making strong progress in understanding the SF-25 and learning how to get the most out of it, and the reliability is good so far which is a really positive sign.

We didn’t get to do as much running as we hoped because of the weather, but we have more time on track tomorrow to work through our programme and to build even more comfort in the car. I’m really enjoying working with the team and we’re all looking forward to the final push tomorrow

CHARLES LECLERC #16

It was more tricky today on track because of what are unusual weather conditions for Bahrain, with cooler temperatures and even some rain.

We ran through our planned programme, but with the conditions changing quickly, it was difficult to draw many conclusions. Tonight we are fully focused on analysing our data and preparing for the last day of testing tomorrow.