Bahrain Grand Prix: F1 Testing Resumes After Power Outage

The first day of pre-season testing for the Formula 1 World Championship in Bahrain was extended by an hour on Wednesday after a power outage caused the car garage to be plunged into darkness and halted the tests.

Circuit officials in Sakhir stated that the power cut, which immediately brought out the red flags, was due to an external fault at a substation.

Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver, was leading the timesheets after outperforming rising Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the morning session.

The drivers returned to the team areas under a dark sky, with engineers using flashlight torches in the garages before activating the backup generators. The session resumed after about an hour.

George Russell, a Mercedes driver, told Sky Sports: “I arrived in the pit area and said it’s dark here, I need to change my sun visor. Then I realized there were no floodlights around me.”