Mercedes offer ray of hope in final practice but Verstappen the man to beat
Mercedes offer ray of hope in final practice but Verstappen the man to beat
Mercedes finally offered up a ray of hope it may be competitive in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix but it was still Max Verstappen who suggested he will claim pole position.
Across the final test in Bahrain and throughout the first two practice sessions at the Bahrain International Circuit, Mercedes suggested it was in dire straights due to the violent nature of the porpoising of its W13.
Even Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the car was "aggressive", leaving all at Mercedes wringing their hands with worry as to how to find a cure.
Throughout the final hour of running ahead of qualifying, it was evident there was considerably less bouncing, particularly along the main start-finish street where on-board footage with Lewis Hamilton on Friday showed his head bobbing significantly.
By the conclusion of F1's winter 'war' ahead of the first true test of the pace of all the cars, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and sixth quickest.
F1 champion Verstappen, though, appears the man to beat as he topped the timing screen with a lap of one minute 32.544secs.
The Red Bull driver finished 0.096s ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, virtually mirroring the gap and performance of the two drivers in Friday practice.
There was a moment of consternation for Leclerc at one point as he went sliding off the track at turn 11 and into a gravel trap but he managed to extricate himself ahead of clinching the second best time.
Sergio Perez made it a Red Bull one-three, with the Mexican a quarter of a second back followed by Russell, whose car appeared more affected by the porpoising than that of Hamilton.
The seven-time champion was six-tenths of a second back on Verstappen and just behind the fifth quickest in Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.
It means the 'big three' teams in Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari look set to battle it for the top three rows on the grid.
Behind the top six, Haas' resurgence appears real as Kevin Magnussen was seventh on the timesheet ahead of Alfa Romeo duo Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou as that team has also seemingly made considerable strides.
Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10, 1.5s adrift, with team-mate for this weekend in Nico Hulkenberg - due to Sebastian Vettel being sidelined with Covid - 12th fastest, the duo sandwiching McLaren's Lando Norris.
The Briton's team-mate in Daniel Ricciardo again missed some track time as the water cooling issue that blighted his second practice was not cured until several minutes into FP3.
Ricciardo finished 15th quickest, with AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Haas driver Mick Schumacher ahead of him.
Williams' Nicholas Latifi was last of the 19 drivers that set a time due to Yuki Tsunoda failing to make it out of the garage following technical issues with his AlphaTauri.
Bahrain Grand Prix final practice results
1. Max Verstappen [Red Bull] 1:32.544s
2. Charles Leclerc [Ferrari] 1:32.640
3. Sergio Perez [Red Bull] 1:32.791
4. George Russell [Mercedes] 1:32.935
5. Carlos Sainz [Ferrari] 1:33.053
6. Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] 1:33.121
7. Kevin Magnussen [Haas] 1:33.437
8. Valtteri Bottas [Alfa Romeo] 1:33.733
9. Guanyu Zhou [Alfa Romeo] 1:33.880
10. Lance Stroll [Aston Martin] 1:33.920
11. Lando Norris [McLaren] 1:33.955
12. Nico Hulkenberg [Aston Martin] 1:33.971
13. Pierre Gasly [AlphaTauri] 1:34.176
14. Mick Schumacher [Haas] 1:34.295
15. Daniel Ricciardo [McLaren] 1:34.378
16. Fernando Alonso [Alpine] 1:34.628
17. Alexander Albon [Williams] 1:34.868
18. Esteban Ocon [Alpine] 1:34.957
19. Nicholas Latifi [Williams] 1:35.667
20. Yuki Tsunoda [AlphaTauri] No time
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GP BAHRAIN
29 Feb - 2 Mar
Max Verstappen
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GP SAUDI ARABIA
7 - 9 Mar
Max Verstappen
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GP AUSTRALIA
22 - 24 Mar
Carlos Sainz
- GP JAPAN 5 - 7 Apr
- GP CHINA 19 - 21 Apr
- GP USA 3 - 6 May
- GP ITALY 17 - 19 May
- GP MONACO 24 - 26 May
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F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
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