Mercedes: how events unfolded for Antonelli and Russell on second day of Bahrain testing. Kimi Antonelli and George Russell worked hard on Day 2 of the 2025 F1 tests.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were very busy on Day 2 of the 2025 F1 preseason tests. Many comparative tests and simulations for the Brackley team, who completed a great series of laps over the 8 hours of today’s test. Let’s take a complete look at Day 2 of the 2025 Mercedes tests, which saw George Russell in action in the morning and Antonelli in the afternoon.

The Mercedes W16 started the day with George Russell, who focused further on understanding the car. The work revealed good potential in terms of pure lap time. In the first four hours of activity, his best lap was completed in 1:29.778 with C3 tires, the soft compound that we’ll see during the GP in April. A time that brought him to about 3 tenths behind his former teammate Hamilton, who topped the morning session.

After completing the qualifying simulation, which revealed that the W16 still needs some adjustments, the Silver Arrows focused on the race simulation. This race pace simulation saw George Russell complete almost an entire GP. By the end of his work, the Englishman had completed 71 laps, over 440 km. A rather particular program from the Brackley team, which chose to test the W16 single-seater under medium fuel load conditions, with a race pace around 1:33/34.

Kimi Antonelli workhorse with the Mercedes W16

The Italian’s work started as planned in the afternoon, despite a session “marred” by light rain. Antonelli’s race pace simulation was praiseworthy, as he completed a total of 78 laps and almost a full race simulation.

In the laps completed for the long-distance simulation, the Italian showed excellent consistency in his times. A very interesting result that still shows great adaptation of the Italian to the demands of an F1, which are significantly different from those of F2. The work done over the winter and the tests planned with the older-generation Mercedes helped a lot with Kimi Antonelli’s entry as an official driver for 2025. However, the tire degradation on the medium compound was more pronounced compared to Ferrari, who gained ground during the race pace simulation.