Photo: Red Bull Media House

F1 Testing Day 3: Perez on top as testing concludes

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez topped the timesheets at the end of the final day of running in Bahrain, ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, with the ‘Silver Arrows’ having a much more successful day.

 

The final day of testing started with Felipe Drugovich being the first out of the pitlane for the start of what might be his final F1 session until he runs for Aston Martin in the Free Practice One as part of the two rookie sessions the team have to run over the course of the season.

However, there is still no confirmation that Lance Stroll will return for the Bahrain Grand Prix, with unconfirmed reports on Twitter that he has broken at least one wrist. Drugovich would appear to be the top candidate for the seat given his time in the car so far, with Stoffel Vandoorne also an option for the team. He is currently in South Africa for the Cape Town ePrix.

 

The red flag was brought out early in the day after debris from Perez’s car was littered onto the track, with a rear sensor strap deciding it would much rather spend it’s morning on the back straight of the Bahrain International Circuit.

Oscar Piastri then had a spin down at turn 10, with the bumps and tailwind proving challenging for the rookie but managing to get away lightly, only damage to his tyres.

 

Valtteri Bottas stopped at turn eight and this brought the red flag out once again, with a mechanical issue, with replays indicating an issue with the gearbox.

 

Charles Leclerc topped the morning session ahead of George Russell, with Felipe Drugovich making up the top three.

 

The afternoon session was relatively issue free, with every team knowing that one mistake and their test would be over.

 

With the sun going down, the lap time started to fall and we finally got to see some teams test the true pace of their machines before they do it for real next weekend.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *