Lando Norris is fastest and Lewis Hamilton 13th as a power cut disrupts F1 testing

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SAKHIR, Bahrain (AP) — Lando Norris was fastest and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton 13th as Formula 1 teams had to deal with a power outage that disrupted preseason testing Wednesday.

In an early sign favoring Norris' bid to beat defending champion Max Verstappen, the McLaren driver was fastest by .157 seconds from Mercedes' George Russell. Verstappen was third-fastest and Hamilton's new Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc fourth.

The afternoon session was suspended for just over an hour when an electrical failure plunged pit lane garages into darkness and disabled floodlights around the track. An hour of the lost time was added on to the end of the day.

The day was split into two sessions, with 10 drivers on track in each, and Hamilton was fifth-fastest in the morning — when times were generally slower — while his replacement at Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, posted the fastest time. The 18-year-old Italian rookie was seventh-fastest overall for the day.

Times in testing often don't reflect a driver or car's true pace because of different strategies.

The 40-year-old Hamilton left Mercedes to join Ferrari this season after spending 12 years and winning six of his seven world titles with the Silver Arrows. The British driver joined Ferrari last month and will line up in the 2025 season alongside Leclerc, who has been at Ferrari since 2019.

Each team is allowed one car on track at a time during preseason testing. Wednesday's morning session saw Hamilton joined by Liam Lawson, who's partnering Verstappen at Red Bull this season, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin.

Two factors mean preseason testing could be less useful in predicting the teams' race pace this year.

The weather so far Wednesday has been windy and unusually cool for Bahrain, unlike a typical F1 race weekend.

Bahrain also isn't hosting the opening race of the season, like it did last year. The first race is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 16.

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