After the imposed secrecy of Formula 1's first 'shakedown' test of 2026 in Barcelona, the Bahrain test is providing no shortage of data to sink our teeth into.
The headline times have Lando Norris and the Mercedes-powered McLaren gaining an early edge, and the MCL40 is certainly not to be dismissed - but there's a lot more going on under the cover.
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While McLaren - with first Oscar Piastri and then Norris - largely favoured shorter runs and did deliver an impressive time, some of its rivals were laser-focussed on pounding consecutive laps in the afternoon of the opening day.
And one rival in particular caught the eye.
In total, there were more than 30 runs you could reasonably classify as some semblance of a relevant long run - but a fair few of those were plainly off the pace, presumably used for basic engine testing or systems checks or anything of that nature rather than any meaningful performance running (especially in the earlier hours of the day).
Here are the 15 best long runs of the day by average laptime, with a long run being defined as having at least seven laps or more:
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m37.663s, soft tyre for 7 laps
2 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m37.926s, S 10
3 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m38.072s, hard 9
4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m38.371s, S 9*
5 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m38.587s, S 10*
6 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1m38.637s, H 8
7 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m38.722s, S 9
8 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m38.880s, medium 10
9 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m38.903s, M 10
10 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m39.013s, S 9
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) 1m39.399s, S 12*
12 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m39.765s, M 9
13 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) 1m40.106s, S 21*
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi), 1m40.331s, M 12*
15 George Russell (Mercedes) 1m40.368s, S 7
*denotes runs where mid-run laptimes were discounted from the average due to being clear outliers
Red Bull with Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc dedicated the final two hours of the day to stint-running.
Mercedes sent out Kimi Antonelli in the final hour only, due to an issue with the car, but he too was doing long runs. There was another Antonelli run, in addition to the one listed above, that fell just short of our threshold for inclusion (over seven representative laptimes), but averaged out very similarly.
Verstappen's long runs, as much as they can be at this stage of testing, were particularly impressive. Across five stints on each of the available compounds (C3 soft, C2 medium, C1 hard), the Red Bull driver delivered extremely consistent laptimes and his averages never required any adjustment for 'throwaway' laps, because there were none.
Also out in the afternoon on an extensive long-running programme was Nico Hulkenberg in the Audi, undeterred by an early red flag-causing stoppage and logging a lot of laps, including in one particularly extensive soft-tyre stint of 21 laps (17 of them representative).
But what about the teams that aren't included above?
Racing Bulls logged several long runs in the morning, when the track was still clearly not in optimum shape and the car was presumably not being pushed all that hard. Its complete absence in the afternoon means there isn't even a hint of a real picture here.
Aston Martin was likewise a no-show after the midday break but had barely done any meaningful consecutive-lap running before then.
Haas dedicated itself to short runs in the afternoon. Esteban Ocon's most consistent earlier run averages out to a presumably meaningless 1m41.493s, though he also did a six-lap run that averaged out to 1m40.095s - by virtue of having two 1m38s laps, two 1m39s laps and two 1m41s laps. Disregard.
It's a similar story with Alpine, with Pierre Gasly's best run of six laps clocking in at 1m40.150s.
Williams did some tentative long runs with its car as it catches up after its shakedown absence. The best was a 1m40.900s with Alex Albon over seven laps on softs.
Cadillac had a handful of runs that resembled long-running, most notable a very gently encouraging 1m41.947s average across 10 laps (one discounted) with Valtteri Bottas in the first half of the day.