BAHRAIN GP – Oscar Piastri leads a McLaren one-two by six and a half tenths in third practice
Oscar Piastri led a McLaren one-two after going just over six and a half tenths ahead of teammate Lando Norris in third practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Piastri set a 31.646 to put himself fastest right at the end of the session but Norris was unable to respond as the clock ticked down.
Norris however made a mistake on what could have been his fastest lap and with the soft tyres then passed their best was unable to try and hit back at his Australian teammate leaving him six-tenths off.
As track conditions mildly improved in the final quarter, Verstappen and then Gasly briefly went top before Piastri reclaimed his lead, well over a second clear of the competition at that stage. Teammate Norris went wide on his first attempt before grabbing second, six and a half tenths behind.
Although final practice, like Friday’s opening session, is always less representative at Sakhir given it takes place in warmer daylight conditions compared to the floodlit evening sessions of qualifying and the race, McLaren’s superiority this weekend appears clear whatever the conditions. Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari third, nearly three-tenths behind Norris.
But the two McLaren’s were nearly a second clear of the rest of the field, George Russell fourth nine hundredths ahead of his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli. That was despite Russell having a spin at Turn Ten, but the two were half a tenth faster than the Alpine of Pierre Gasly.
Going into qualifying this evening, McLaren will be seen as the team to beat given what looks to be a sizeable advantage once adjusted for full power and they were comfortably faster by half a second in FP2 which are similar to the conditions for qualifying and the race.
But all of McLaren’s would-be rivals appear to have little answer to the papaya cars’ searing Bahrain pace ahead of the battle for pole. Alpine, meanwhile, showed strong pace as they look for their first points of the season.
Isack Hadjar was seventh going two hundredths faster than Max Verstappen, the four-time champion aborted his soft run after going wide. But despite taking pole and the win last weekend it is believed that Red Bull is on the back foot going into this evenings qualifying. Verstappen was two hundredths ahead of Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton completing the top ten.
Esteban Ocon put himself eleventh, the Haas driver missed out on the top ten by a tenth as he went almost a quarter of a tenth ahead of Liam Lawson. Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin two-tenths ahead of Alex Albon’s Williams with Ollie Bearman half a second further behind.
Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin seventeenth ahead of both Sauber’s, with Gabriel Bortoleto just over a tenth ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg. The Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda completed the field three-tenths behind Hulkenberg.