Liam Lawson topped the second day of pre-season Formula 3 testing at the Bahrain International Circuit on Monday, posting a best time of 1:46.365 during the afternoon’s running.
The Hitech Grand Prix driver, who switched from MP Motorsport this year, found himself more than half a second clear of Carlin Buzz Racing’s Clement Novalak in second, followed closely by Campos Racing’s Alex Peroni.
The Bahrain circuit was battered by high winds on the second day, but that didn’t impact running much with Lawson’s best time half a second up on the best time from Sunday, which was set by Devlin DeFrancesco – the Trident racer was tenth quickest today.
Charouz Racing System’s David Schumacher looked a little more comfortable on Day 2 as he topped the morning session with a time of 1:47.461, but failed to improve in the afternoon as he focussed on longer runs.
The morning saw one red flag when Matteo Nannini stopped on track for an unspecified reason.
Jake Hughes made his 2020 testing debut in the afternoon after missing Sunday and Monday morning’s running due to prior commitments. He was seventh quickest behind fourth-placed Logan Sargeant, Dennis Hauger and Oscar Piastri.
The top 11 – which consisted of Theo Pourchaire in eighth Sebastian Fernandez, DeFrancesco and Max Fewtrell – were split by just under a second.
Fewtrell was second quickest for much of the afternoon before, with just under an hour to go, a raft of quick laps came in as drivers switched to low-fuel runs.
The session ended prematurely with Niko Kari stopping on track and causing the final red flag of the day.
Testing resumes on Tuesday for the third and final day before the season-opener in Bahrain later this month.
![Isack Hadjar [pictured] has deferred to Max Verstappen for Day 2 of the F1 pre-season test. Image: Red Bull Content Pool](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Isack-Hadjar-Red-Bull-test-2026-120x86.webp)
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