Overview
- Charles Leclerc placed third with his best lap set in the morning, while Lewis Hamilton lost significant afternoon running to a technical issue.
- Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar recovered from a morning stoppage to log laps and finish sixth on the timesheet, and Max Verstappen did not run on Wednesday.
- Aston Martin’s day was curtailed by a power-unit problem for Fernando Alonso before Lance Stroll triggered the session’s only red flag with a spin into the gravel.
- The FIA trialled a revised grid procedure featuring a five-second blue pre-start warning, and the simulation concluded without cars stalling.
- Mercedes recorded the highest mileage of the day with 145 laps, as teams continued to prioritise reliability and data-gathering under the new 2026 rules.