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

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.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands prepares for the pit during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

RB driver Isack Hadjar of France in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Williams driver Carlos Sainz of Spain in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Red Bull driver Liam Lawson of New Zealand in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso of Spain in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain attends the F1 75 Live launch event at the O2 arena in London, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

INCHEON, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 2, 2026--

The Samsung Biologics Labor Union criticized Samsung Biologics after the Incheon Regional Labor Relations Commission (Case No. Incheon 2025 Discrimination 10) ruled the company’s exclusion of contract workers from holiday gift benefits constituted discriminatory treatment. Following this, the company changed counsel from Bae, Kim & Lee LLC to Kim & Chang, South Korea’s largest and most premium corporate law firm, and filed for review before the National Labor Relations Commission.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260402905034/en/

The union does not view this as a minor welfare dispute. It is difficult to justify a company with $1.3 billion in operating profit contesting a $10,000 matter (about $66 per worker for 150 contract workers) rather than accepting the outcome. The core issue is the decision to exclude contract workers over such a trivial cost, and then aggressively defend that discrimination instead of correcting it.

While the company reportedly argued the gift was a discretionary CEO benefit, the union stated that treating a negotiated benefit as unilateral generosity reflects a tendency to view people as costs, not organizational members.

The union added this raises broader concerns about human rights and ESG credibility. Excluding workers based on employment status and fighting labor rulings is inconsistent with the company's publicly promoted ESG values. Furthermore, the union warned that management's pattern of making such irrational decisions is driving labor-management relations into a structural conflict. True ESG credibility requires workplace fairness and respect for human dignity.

Jaesung Park, President of the Samsung Biologics Labor Union, said, “The amount at issue may be small, but the discriminatory mindset revealed is not. Such repeated irrational decisions are destroying foundational trust and creating a structural crisis in our labor relations. What the company needs now is not a determination to fight a small cost to the end, but the common-sense decision to correct discrimination and treat people as members of the organization.”

A written judgment from the Labor Relations Commission confirming that Samsung Biologics discriminated against a fixed-term employee regarding holiday benefits.