George Russell topped the final morning session of Formula 1’s first Bahrain pre-season test, leading Lewis Hamilton.
Russell set the fastest time of the week so far less than half an hour into Friday’s running, with a 1m34.075s on soft tyres. Thirty minutes later, the Mercedes driver improved his own benchmark to a 1m33.918s, precisely as Ferrari’s Hamilton set a 1m34.209s.
Nobody else lapped any quicker than 1m35s, with Max Verstappen third for Red Bull in 1m35.341s, followed by Haas’ Oliver Bearman in 1m35.972s and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in 1m36.390s.
Franco Colapinto and Carlos Sainz took sixth and seventh for Alpine and Williams respectively, with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson half a tenth slower than the Spaniard after using exclusively medium tyres over his 84 laps this morning – more mileage than anyone.
Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who ran almost exclusively on the hard compound before a late run on softs, led Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll. The Canadian was 4.5 seconds off the pace, which ironically is precisely what he said the AMR26 was lacking in performance.
After Cadillac caused an early red flag on Thursday when Sergio Perez stopped on track – though its yet-to-be-named car went on to complete a 105-lap day – Valtteri Bottas managed just eight laps this morning before suffering the same fate.
It took nearly two hours for Cadillac to sort the issue. The Finnish veteran was able to cover 37 laps, but still propped up the time sheet.
F1 Bahrain pre-season test – Day 3 morning results
POS
DRIVER
TEAM
BEST LAP
GAP
LAPS
1
George Russell
Mercedes
1’33″918
78
2
Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari
1’34″209
+0.291
69
3
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
1’35″341
+1.423
61
4
Oliver Bearman
Haas
1’35″972
+2.054
70
5
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
1’36″390
+2.472
73
6
Franco Colapinto
Alpine
1’36″874
+2.956
64
7
Carlos Sainz
Williams
1’37″186
+3.268
68
8
Liam Lawson
Racing Bulls
1’37″238
+3.320
84
9
Gabriel Bortoleto
Audi
1’38″251
+4.333
60
10
Lance Stroll
Aston Martin
1’38″423
+4.505
54
11
Valtteri Bottas
Cadillac
1’38″772
+4.854
37
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– The Autosport.com Team
