One consistent from Formula 1 testing in the last few years has been the fact that the fastest times predominantly come in the afternoon final session. And it was now time for that, as Charles Leclerc took over from his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz for the final four hours of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.
It was still very hot in Bahrain at the start of the afternoon session, but as floodlights came on, the qualifying conditions were perfectly replicated for teams to choose for performance runs.
Scuderia Ferrari decided to perform some setup changes which is why Charles Leclerc was not able to hit the track in the first part of the afternoon session. After one hour, Charles was well and truly up and running in the Ferrari, collecting more laps on the board and gathering important data which the Maranello team analyze in the following days. With two hours to go, Charles Leclerc went fastest for the Maranello team and we therefore saw that Ferrari speed we have been waiting for today. It was a 1:32.415 for the Monegasque driver, quicker than Max Verstappen’s initial best lap time by 0.2s.
However, Red Bull leave Bahrain (until next weekend) with the fastest time of the week as Max Verstappen set a 1:31.720 in the final stages of Saturday testing. That lap took him almost 0.5s clear of Charles Leclerc. An impressive effort from the reigning world champion (in fairness, Verstappen’s time was on the softest of the five Pirelli compounds while Charles Leclerc’s time was on the marginally harder C4), but Scuderia Ferrari can be more than pleased with its track activity on this final day of testing, with Charles Leclerc completing the scheduled programme by adding 51 more laps for the Italian side.
For now Red Bull and Ferrari appear to be the teams to beat when Formula 1’s new season gets underway next weekend in Bahrain.
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