Barcelona Day 4: Aston Martin AMR26 unleashed as Russell sets blistering pace

Mercedes driver George Russell set the pace of the penultimate day of the first pre-season test of F1 2026 in Barcelona.

It came as the Aston Martin AMR26, arguably the most hotly anticipated car of the F1 2026 season, made its belated on-track debut.

George Russell fastest of all in F1 testing as Aston Martin AMR26 debuts

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Two teams opted to make a driver change over the lunch break, with Charles Leclerc taking over from Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari and George Russell replacing Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes.

Antonelli set the fastest lap of the week on Thursday morning, with his 1:17.081 faster than the quickest lap Mercedes managed in the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix at the same venue.

Russell fell just a tenth short of Antonelli’s benchmark with an hour of the afternoon session, posting a 1:17.167 lap.

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He knocked his teammate off top spot by dipping into the 1:16s with a 1:16.928 before going even better with around 90 minutes left on the clock.

An unofficial lap of 1:16.445 by Russell represented the fastest time of testing so far and was within a second of the fastest race lap (1:15.743, set by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri) in last year’s race in Barcelona.

Leclerc also made an impression on the timesheets, recording an unofficial lap of 1:18.223 to take third, with Piastri’s running limited by a fuel systems issue on his McLaren MCL40.

With each team limited to a maximum of three days of running in Barcelona, Thursday marked the end of Mercedes’ running in this test having also appeared on Monday and Wednesday.

The Racing Bulls team will also not appear on Friday having also reached its permitted allowance.

After PlanetF1.com revealed last week that Aston Martin would have a delayed start to testing, the team announced on Monday that it was aiming to get the new AMR26 on track from Thursday.

It took until the final hour of the day’s running for the car – the first Aston Martin F1 car to be designed by legendary design guru Adrian Newey – to appear.

The AMR26 appeared in an an all-black testing livery, completing an installation lap before performing a brief run with Lance Stroll in the closing stages of the day’s running.

Stroll brought out a late red flag, bringing an early end to the day’s action.

A report of the Day 4 morning session in Barcelona is available at the bottom of this article.

Unofficial lap times from Day 4 of Barcelona F1 testing

1 George Russell, Mercedes 1:16.445 78 laps

2 ⁠Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes 1:17.081 90 laps

3 ⁠Charles Leclerc, Ferrari 1:18.223 83 laps

4 ⁠Oscar Piastri, McLaren 1:18.419 48 laps

5 ⁠Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls 1:18.451 47 laps

6 ⁠Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari 1:18.654 87 laps

7 ⁠Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls 1:18.840 64 laps

8 ⁠Sergio Perez, Cadillac 1:21.024 66 laps

9 ⁠Lance Stroll, Aston Martin 1:46.404 5 laps

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