Formula One pacesetters McLaren dominated final Bahrain Grand Prix practice yesterday, with Oscar Piastri showing impressive speed in leading Lando Norris one-two while Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen was only eighth.
Australian Piastri lapped the Sakhir circuit in a best time of one minute 31.646 seconds, with championship leader Norris 0.668 slower.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ended up third, but a hefty 0.834 off Piastri’s pace, after losing his left wing mirror earlier in the session. “I can’t believe how fast those McLarens are at the moment,” said Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who at one point was top, over the radio.
Mercedes’ George Russell was fourth, 1.181 slower than Piastri, with rookie teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli fifth and Gasly sixth, in a session that was run in temperatures of 30°C.
Yesterday’s qualifying and today’s race, which ends after dark and under floodlights, will be considerably cooler.
Norris leads Verstappen — last year’s winner at Sakhir from pole position, who also won in Japan last weekend — by a single point in the standings going into the fourth round of the season.
Russell exclaimed at one point that “I’d probably go as far as saying that’s the least amount of grip I’ve ever had in an F1 car”.
French rookie Isack Hadjar was seventh fastest for Racing Bulls, Williams’s Carlos Sainz was ninth and Ferrari’s seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton 10th.
Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber stopped on track with 28 minutes remaining, the German reporting the car had gone into anti-stall and switched off.
Meanwhile, Sainz has scored only a point since joining Williams from Ferrari but team boss James Vowles says the Spaniard is already delivering beyond expectations, and they are getting more than they paid for.
Former champions Williams are fifth overall, and their 19 points from three races is more than the 17 they took from the whole of last year.
While Thai teammate Alex Albon has been the major contributor, with three successive top-10 finishes, Vowles said the influence of 30-year-old Sainz had been clear from the start. “I think we’re getting more than I paid for (him). Our car has a very different style of adapting to it than the Ferrari. He’s getting there,” he said.
“He’ll be on the money very shortly. The car is faster thanks to the work and effort, the work ethic he’s put in, and how he really develops with the engineers.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.