Practice report
Formula 1 Bahrain GP
Bahrain GP: Verstappen outpaces Leclerc by 0.096s in FP3
Red Bull's Max Verstappen narrowly beat Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to the fastest time in third free practice for Formula 1's Bahrain Grand Prix, setting up an intriguing first qualifying session of the 2022 season.
Filip Cleeren
Edited: Mar 19, 2022, 3:14 PM
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Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou opened the final one-hour practice session at the Sakhir International Circuit, with Lewis Hamilton also out on track early as he continued to search for solutions for the Mercedes W13's handling issues.
Hamilton was the first driver to set a half decent lap with a 1m34.256s on softs as drivers had to re-adjust to the windy daytime conditions, which are not entirely representative ahead of this evening's qualifying session.
After 20 minutes times finally started to tumble thanks to Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz Jr and Charles Leclerc, split by the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, the leading trio all on soft tyres.
World champion Max Verstappen's first effort - some 25 minutes into the session - was enough to vault to the top of the timesheets, his soft-shod 1m33.035s making him 0.762s quicker than Leclerc.
Leclerc's bid to respond to Verstappen's time ended in the Turn 11 gravel trap. The Monegasque driver reacted to oversteer on exit and as the car gripped back up, he was spat out on the right-hand side.
Leclerc managed to make his way back to the pits without damage, while teammate Sainz jumped Perez for third.
After a mid-session lull, action picked back up in the final 25 minutes. Hamilton brought the session back to life with a time of 1m33.121s on softs, his fastest time of the weekend.
It yielded the Briton second, just 0.086s shy of Verstappen, albeit still a second off Verstappen's FP2 leading time.
Sainz soon demoted Hamilton to third by virtue of a 1m33.053s lap on softs, before George Russell went top with a 1m32.935s lap in the Mercedes fitted with Pirelli's softest compound.
With nearly everyone out on softs at this stage, all eyes were on Verstappen to drive up the pace, but he backed off from a first attempt after locking up the right-front tyre into Turn 1.
Leclerc did carry on to briefly take top with a time of 1m32.640s, putting three tenths on Russell on a lap that he called "not great" on the team radio.
While still lagging behind in the first sector, Verstappen's second attempt was tidy enough to re-take first from Leclerc with a 1m32.544s.
Verstappen's time was good enough to survive a frantic final 10 minutes at Sakhir, heading Leclerc, Perez and Russell.
Sainz was fifth, with Hamilton following in sixth just under six tenths of a second behind his 2021 rival.
Haas showcased its improved form with a promising seventh time for returnee Kevin Magnussen, following 0.9s behind the leaders.
Alfa Romeo also underlined its best of the rest hopes with the eighth and ninth times respectively for Bottas and Zhou.
Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10 for Aston Martin, with McLaren's Lando Norris 11th after another low-key outing for the Woking team.
Nico Hulkenberg, who replaces Sebastian Vettel due to a positive COVID-19 test, took 12th ahead of AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly.
Mick Schumacher was 14th for Haas, ahead of the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo.
Alpine's low-key start continued as neither Fernando Alonso nor Esteban Ocon showed their hand on Pirelli's softest compound. The pair finished 16th and 18th respectively using the mediums.
They were split by the first Williams of Alex Albon, while Albon's teammate Nicholas Latifi was last of the 19 runners, the Grove outfit continuing its worrying pre-season trend.
Yuki Tsunoda didn't make it out due to hydraulic problems on his AlphaTauri.
Qualifying for F1 2022's first grand prix follows at 6pm local Bahrain time, or 3pm GMT.
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap 1 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 15 1'32.544 2 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 16 1'32.640 0.096 3 Sergio Perez
Red Bull 20 1'32.791 0.247 4 George Russell
Mercedes 19 1'32.935 0.391 5 Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 20 1'33.053 0.509 6 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 15 1'33.121 0.577 7 Kevin Magnussen
Haas 15 1'33.437 0.893 8 Valtteri Bottas
Alfa Romeo 21 1'33.733 1.189 9 Guanyu Zhou
Alfa Romeo 18 1'33.880 1.336 10 Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 14 1'33.920 1.376 11 Lando Norris
McLaren 18 1'33.955 1.411 12 Nico Hulkenberg
Aston Martin 18 1'33.971 1.427 13 Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 18 1'34.176 1.632 14 Mick Schumacher
Haas 17 1'34.295 1.751 15 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 20 1'34.378 1.834 16 Fernando Alonso
Alpine 15 1'34.628 2.084 17 Alex Albon
Williams 15 1'34.868 2.324 18 Esteban Ocon
Alpine 16 1'34.957 2.413 19 Nicholas Latifi
Williams 14 1'35.667 3.123 20 Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 0 View full results
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