Carlos Sainz closed the free practice sessions of the Bahrain Grand Prix in front of the third and final session. However, as it still took place during the day, the conditions were not representative of what will be found in the qualifying session later in the afternoon. In addition, lap times were not the focus and were still far from yesterday’s best.
In a windy afternoon at the Sakhir circuit, most of the drivers started the session with soft tires – Red Bull put the hard tires on Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – fastest yesterday – was the first to lead, but was later beaten by Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).
As more drivers began their work, lap times dropped and several drivers took the lead – including Kevin Magnussen (Haas/Ferrari) and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin/Mercedes). Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin/Mercedes) also led the way, but it was only in the last 20 minutes that the best laps would appear.
The Spaniard reached 1m30s, but was unable to hold off Sainz (Ferrari) – who was 0.141s faster. Verstappen had some complaints about the hard tires and was also not pleased with the performance of the gearbox. Nevertheless, he finished in third place, 0.238s off the top – after finishing sixth yesterday.
Leclerc and Lando Norris (McLaren/Mercedes) completed the top five ahead of George Russell, who was the best Mercedes driver. Pérez only managed eighth in the other Red Bull, while Hamilton did not replicate yesterday’s performances and finished only 12th. In the top ten, the presence of Nico Hülkenberg (Haas/Ferrari) in ninth was the biggest surprise.
Times:
