Carlos Sainz took top spot in the final practice session at the Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen.
Ferrari’s Sainz reserved his fastest lap on the soft tire for the final five minutes of the hour to usurp Alonso’s Aston Martin by 0.141s just hours out from the first qualifying session of the season. Alonso in turn had only just usurped Verstappen for what had been the top of the time sheet, beating the Red Bull driver by 0.097s. However, the reigning champion appeared to make a minor error exiting the final corner that required him to feather the throttle, costing him a small amount of time.
Charles Leclerc slotted into fourth in the second Ferrari after a scrappy first sector cost him 0.3s. He also complained of being caught out by the setting sun low in the sky through the final corner.
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The final practice session is considered unrepresentative for being run in the daytime ahead of a nighttime qualifying session and race, notwithstanding the chilly ambient temperature of below 70 degrees F in the hour before sunset.
Lando Norris took fifth, the McLaren driver 0.294s off Sainz’s session-topping time after the Briton spent much of the hour in his garage after requesting what appeared to be a mid-session suspension change.
The top end of the field was extremely close. George Russell made it four constructors in the top four by lapping his Mercedes just 0.072s behind Norris, while Oscar Piastri was only 0.02s further back in the second McLaren.
Sergio Perez briefly held top spot with less than 20 minutes to go but ended up 0.283s off the pace after the late flurry of fast laps.
Perez and Verstappen ran a different program to the rest of the field by spending their opening laps of the subdued session using the hard tire. The RBR teammates were the only ones to do so.
Each driver has only two sets of the hard for the weekend, which has been crucial to race strategy in previous editions of this race.
Nico Hulkenberg again impressed for Haas, lapping only 0.03s slower than Perez and within 0.454s of the lead, just ahead of Lance Stroll. Daniel Ricciardo was 11th for RB ahead of Lewis Hamilton, the pair both 0.62s off the pace.
Yuki Tsunoda was marginally faster than Kevin Magnussen at just over 0.8s adrift.
Alex Albon led the backmarkers for Williams at 1.1s , leading Sauber teammates Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas.
Alpine teammates Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were 18th and 20th, 1.3s and 1.5s off the pace respectively and sandwiching Logan Sargeant in the second Williams into 19th place.
