BAHRAIN TEST – George Russell ahead of Max Verstappen by two hundredths on the final day
George Russell was fastest on the final day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, the Mercedes driver set his fastest time a 29.545 in the final ten minutes of the afternoon to put himself two hundredths ahead of Verstappen. The top two both set their fastest times in the final ten minutes.
Russell showed decent pace to go ahead of Red Bull and Alex Albon, both having a full day in the car but the top eight all set their fastest times during the afternoon session. The Mercedes time was almost two-tenths off Albon’s teammate’s fastest time of the test on Thursday.
Verstappen’s fastest effort, also on the C3 tyres, was a mere two hundredths slower as the world champion completed Red Bull’s fastest laps of what at times had appeared a complicated test with the RB21.
Oscar Piastri put his McLaren fourth as the team started to show pace, he was just over eight hundredths behind Verstappen. His fastest time coming in the final half an hour.
Red Bull, brought a new nosecone to the final day, and spent much of the day on short to mid-length runs seemingly experimenting with set-ups. Verstappen also had a late spin at Turn One, his day focusing on experiments on short and mid-length stints. They also brought a new RB21 nosecone design to the final day, while Verstappen had a late spin at Turn One.
There was yet more drama from the circuit, two red flags during the morning the first for a shattered pane of glass from a gantry that fell onto the main straight and the second for the appearance of a circuit bus in a run-off area. But there have been no major headaches for the teams in terms of reliability.
Another bonus for the teams was the weather following two days of unusually cold and wet running, Friday were more typical of the warmer and dry running in Bahrain.
Piastri began to show what had been expected from McLaren as did teammate Lando Norris, who was also third during the morning session. But dropped to eleventh in the full-day classification and was a second off his teammates fourth. Piastri meanwhile was a tenth faster than the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton.
Gasly moved himself ahead of Hamilton during what would be the qualifying hour for the Grand Prix, setting his fastest time on the harder medium tyre. A good test for Alpine who struggle for much of last season.
Hamilton did not seem to enjoy a final half-day to testing, going off the road several times in his early long-run work, before he went into the garage after completing just forty-seven laps, ten short of a race distance. But the seven-time champion was a tenth and a half ahead of Yuki Tsunoda.
Hamilton and Ferrari fell short of their run plan to do long runs with the forty-seven lap mileage across short stints. Ferrari missed the final stages of the session in a slightly premature end to their day.
Esteban Ocon put his Haas eighth, the first driver a second off the outright pace and just over two-tenths behind the Racing Bull.
Charles Leclerc was fastest during the morning but ended the day a second off the final outright pace of Russell, in ninth. The Monacan over four-tenths behind Hamilton, as Kimi Antonelli completed the top ten.
Norris dropped to eleventh in the final classification, the Bristolian going just under three-tenths ahead of Jack Doohan. While McLaren has impressed on the longer runs their true pace remains unclear.
Aston Martin had intended to run Lance Stroll for the afternoon but he had a handful of laps before feeling unwell before being replaced by Fernando Alonso.
Alonso didn’t better his time staying sixteenth. Nico Hulkenberg was fourteenth for Sauber going nearly three hundredth behind Stroll and three hundredths faster than the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar.
Gabriel Bortoleto was seventeenth going two-tenths faster than Ollie Bearman. Haas hasn’t really shown much in terms of performance, but that is believed to be their strategy as consistency paid off for them last season where their form continued throughout the season for the first time.
But the last three days have seen a series of bizarre incidents leading to red flags, while no car has stopped on track the morning Bearman’s engine cover blew off the car, resulting in him slowly limping back to the pits for it to be fixed with some fragments left on the grass.
The second was caused by a shattered glass panel falling from the gantry, prompting marshals to swiftly sweep it up so running could continue.
After unseasonably chilly, and then wet, conditions affected the opening two days of running in Bahrain, conditions were certainly more typical for the Middle East for the final day. The feeling is that McLaren remains the team to beat at the start of the season but the pack remains as tight as it did at the end of 2024.
Teams now head to Melbourne before returning to Sakhir in six week’s time for the Grand Prix after three races in the Asia-Pacific