Oscar Piastri's first lap times during the fourth day of testing in Barcelona have emerged ahead of his expected rivalry with teammate Lando Norris in 2026.
On Monday, the long wait for the return of Formula One finally ended as teams from across the grid arrived in Barcelona to take part in the first pre-season testing sessions of the year
Ahead of two planned weekends of testing in in Bahrain in February, set to be televised for fans to watch along, teams were invited to an additional behind closed doors testing period behind closed doors at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this week.
All 11 teams on the grid are permitted to carry out three days of testing between January 26 and January 30, with many of them already taking part in practice sessions.
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And now that McLaren star Piastri has finally completed some laps, we can finally speculate how he will fare against teammate and rival Norris in the 2026 season.
Despite the fact that the testing in Barcelona is supposed to be completely closed off to fans and the media, there has been some lap time data appearing online published online by various media outlets.
Although it's unclear exactly how important these lap times are, with teams mainly using the test to identify any reliability issues following the significant changes to the regulations, it still offers some insight into which drivers we can expect to start the season well.
On Wednesday, the third day of testing, McLaren decided to send out a car for the first time this week, with 2025 champion Norris completing laps in the Woking-based team's 2026 car.
As per Spanish outlet SoyMotor, The British driver finished third place out of the eight drivers on track, setting a time of 1:18.725 at the beginning of the afternoon on the medium tyre.
Just one day later, Piastri has been given the chance to try out the new McLaren car, joining the likes of Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton on track during the morning of the fourth day of testing.
After completing a total of 48 laps, SoyMotor reports that the Australian driver set a fastest time of 1:18.419, putting him just over three tenths of a second ahead of his teammate.
Oscar Piastri's Test Lap Times Compared to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull
Piastri's lap time was the second fastest of the morning session, with Mercedes driver Antonelli setting the fastest time with a 1:17.081 lap, his personal fastest time and comfortably the quickest of the session.
Meanwhile Hamilton was just two tenths behind Piastri, with a fastest lap time of 1:18.654.
Across the entire week of testing, it appears that Mercedes appear to be the fastest team, with George Russell setting the second fastest time on day three with a 1:17.580, only behind teammate Antonelli who set a fastest time of 1:17.382.
During dry running on Tuesday morning, Charles Leclerc's fastest lap came in at 1:20.844 while Red Bull star Max Verstappen ran quickest with a time of 1:19.578.
Topics: Formula 1, Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, McLaren, Barcelona, Motorsport
Ben McCrum