Lewis Hamilton ended the fifth and final day of the Barcelona shakedown test with the fastest lap of the entire week, delivering a 1:16.348 in the closing minutes of the session. F1Technical’s senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the final day of the Barcelona test.
The lap, set on soft tyres, allowed the Ferrari driver to displace Lando Norris and secure the top position on the timesheet. Although shakedown tests are not designed to reveal outright performance, Hamilton’s effort provided an early indication that Ferrari’s 2026 car is capable of producing strong single‑lap pace.
Ferrari enjoyed a productive day overall. Charles Leclerc set the pace in the morning with a 1:16.653, which kept him at the top until Hamilton’s late run.
The team split its programme between the two drivers, and both managed to extract competitive times while completing solid mileage. Hamilton logged 63 laps, while Leclerc added 78, giving Ferrari a balanced combination of speed and reliability.
McLaren also demonstrated encouraging form following technical issues on Day 4.. Lando Norris completed 83 laps and finished the day just 0.246 seconds behind Hamilton, while Oscar Piastri added 80 laps and ended fourth with a best time of 1:17.446.
The team’s consistency across both drivers suggested that McLaren has begun the season with a stable and predictable package, even if it did not produce the absolute fastest time.
Red Bull and Alpine focused heavily on mileage rather than headline pace. Max Verstappen completed 118 laps, one of the highest totals of the day, as Red Bull prioritised long‑run data collection.
Alpine went even further: Pierre Gasly recorded an impressive 160 laps, the highest single‑day total of the entire shakedown. Although neither team challenged the top of the timesheet, their extensive running indicated strong early reliability, which is often more valuable at this stage than outright speed.
Haas and Audi also split their programmes between two drivers each. Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman completed 85 and 106 laps respectively for Haas, while Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto logged 78 and 66 laps for Audi.
Their lap times placed them toward the lower half of the classification, but both teams achieved the kind of steady, uninterrupted running that is typical of shakedown priorities.
Aston Martin and Cadillac completed fewer laps than the front‑running teams. Fernando Alonso managed 49 laps and Valtteri Bottas completed 54, and neither driver attempted a late‑session performance run.
As a result, their lap times were not representative of their true potential and offered little insight into their competitive position.
Taken together, the numbers from Day 5 paint a familiar pre‑season picture. Ferrari produced the fastest single lap, McLaren showed consistency across both drivers, and Red Bull and Alpine emerged as the mileage leaders.
While Hamilton’s 1:16.348 provided the headline moment, the teams that left Barcelona with the most data — particularly Alpine and Red Bull — may ultimately have gained the most from the final day of running.
