Sebastian Vettel led a Ferrari one-two in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, relegating the two Mercedes drivers to third and fourth.
Kimi Raikkonen was the first of the pair to move ahead of the W07s before Vettel edged his time by just four hundredths of a second.
Vettel’s best effort was six-tenths of a second off the quickest time seen so far this weekend, set by Nico Rosberg yesterday. But on a hot track in final practice – around 10C warmer than yesterday – the red cars led the way.
The two Haas drivers impressed in the final hour of running as both Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez made it well into the top ten. Grosjean was sixth behind Valtteri Bottas, who continued to run the original front wing on his Williams as Felipe Massa used the team’s new design.
Daniel Ricciardo completed the top ten ahead of Marcus Ericsson, who was a promising 11th for Sauber. Having been third yesterday, Jenson Button slipped to 13th in his McLaren. Team mate Stoffel Vandoorne was just four hundredths of a second slower despite spending the first part of the session stuck in the pits.
Jolyon Palmer had a drama at the end of the session when his left-rear tyre went flat on the approach to turn ten, sending him off the track. He ended up 20th ahead of the two Manors.
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Third practice visual gaps
Sebastian Vettel – 1’31.683
+0.040 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’31.723
+0.421 Nico Rosberg – 1’32.104
+0.477 Lewis Hamilton – 1’32.160
+0.992 Valtteri Bottas – 1’32.675
+1.399 Romain Grosjean – 1’33.082
+1.430 Daniil Kvyat – 1’33.113
+1.654 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’33.337
+1.680 Felipe Massa – 1’33.363
+1.836 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’33.519
+1.886 Marcus Ericsson – 1’33.569
+1.934 Kevin Magnussen – 1’33.617
+2.061 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’33.744
+2.095 Max Verstappen – 1’33.778
+2.320 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’34.003
+2.330 Felipe Nasr – 1’34.013
+2.445 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’34.128
+2.598 Sergio Perez – 1’34.281
+2.741 Jolyon Palmer – 1’34.424
+3.863 Rio Haryanto – 1’35.546
+4.041 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’35.724
Complete practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’32.294 | 1’31.001 | 1’32.104 | +1.103 | 80 |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’32.799 | 1’31.242 | 1’32.160 | +0.918 | 70 |
3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’35.073 | 1’32.650 | 1’31.683 | -0.967 | 62 |
4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’34.128 | 1’32.452 | 1’31.723 | -0.729 | 67 |
5 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’35.440 | 1’32.281 | 1’33.704 | +1.423 | 72 |
6 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’34.860 | 1’32.406 | 1’33.778 | +1.372 | 70 |
7 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’35.174 | 1’32.792 | 1’32.675 | -0.117 | 78 |
8 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’34.541 | 1’32.703 | 1’33.113 | +0.41 | 74 |
9 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’34.461 | 1’32.870 | 1’33.519 | +0.649 | 70 |
10 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’35.006 | 1’32.873 | 1’33.363 | +0.49 | 73 |
11 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Honda | 1’36.392 | 1’32.999 | 1’33.744 | +0.745 | 66 |
12 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’35.000 | 1’33.384 | 1’33.082 | -0.302 | 55 |
13 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas-Ferrari | 1’35.309 | 1’33.129 | 1’33.337 | +0.208 | 64 |
14 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’34.793 | 1’33.177 | 1’34.003 | +0.826 | 77 |
15 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’33.406 | 1’34.281 | +0.875 | 50 | |
16 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1’35.490 | 1’33.447 | 1’33.617 | +0.17 | 70 |
17 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’35.728 | 1’34.224 | 1’33.569 | -0.655 | 77 |
18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’34.601 | 1’33.570 | 1’34.128 | +0.558 | 81 |
19 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’36.939 | 1’33.640 | 1’34.424 | +0.784 | 72 |
20 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor-Mercedes | 1’36.371 | 1’33.953 | 1’35.724 | +1.771 | 63 |
21 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’36.719 | 1’34.477 | 1’34.013 | -0.464 | 73 |
22 | Rio Haryanto | Manor-Mercedes | 1’37.714 | 1’34.562 | 1’35.546 | +0.984 | 75 |
23 | Alfonso Celis | Force India-Mercedes | 1’37.287 | 23 |
2016 Bahrain Grand Prix
- Haas mechanic credited for saving Grosjean’s race
- Grosjean takes back-to-back Driver of the Weekend wins
- Another decent race despite qualifying gloom
- 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
SuperDuperSofts
2nd April 2016, 14:14
Looking interesting. Qualifying will be exciting, let’s see if it doesn’t suck! :D
Scalextric (@scalextric)
2nd April 2016, 14:19
Very impressed with Haas. I wonder if they have the same warm track advantage as Ferarri or if they really are ahead of the midfield. Either way, this is great. I hope we see a Williams or Red Bull ‘semi-customer’ team in a year or 2. Or both.
kpcart
2nd April 2016, 14:23
what, like Toro Rosso?
Markp
2nd April 2016, 14:25
Sauber or Torro Rosso may become Alfa Romeo.
evered7 (@evered7)
2nd April 2016, 14:28
If that means a more competitive field, I am all for it. Right now Manor and Sauber doing a disservice to the Merc/Ferrari engines.
Shreyas Mohanty (@ssm0304)
2nd April 2016, 14:23
Don’t know what to make of this. Robert posted a 1:31.001 yesterday so obviously Mercedes have another second in their bag, at the very least. Question is how much do Ferrari have?
OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
2nd April 2016, 15:58
@ssm0304 Robert Kubica?
Shreyas Mohanty (@ssm0304)
3rd April 2016, 7:35
@omarr-pepper Autocorrect! I meant Rosberg.
ColdFly F1 (@)
2nd April 2016, 14:27
@scalextric, certainly looks good. But ahead of midfield all depends on how we define midfield nowadays.
I’d say that (besides MER & FER) WIL, RBR, STR, and even FI are still ahead of them. And ButLaren was very impressive yesterday and should still be ahead tomorrow.
Scalextric (@scalextric)
2nd April 2016, 14:41
@coldfly Probably true in general. Time will tell. I was simply looking at the visual gaps plot above. That, plus P6 in Aus, puts them in contention for some recognition.
Markp
2nd April 2016, 14:55
A very sensible approach to entering F1 and I really hope they make a success of this and beat teams that have been around for a while as it shows others what can be done and maybe more teams enter. The top teams that help them will not oppose it as they get a revenue stream from this. It could form a new type of garagisti. In the old days they had the Ford DFV now they get big team help, of course unlike the past there is not a way they could win but it is better than nothing and nice to have a grid of healthy teams.
Scalextric (@scalextric)
2nd April 2016, 15:22
I think the Ford DFV was crucial to the garagistas being competetive. Obtaining a current-year Ferrari or Mercedes engine now may be a problem. Maybe Renault or Honda will catch up in a year or two and also be an option. But this is streets ahead of where HRT, Lotus/Caterham and Virgin/Marussia ever were.
Solo (@solo)
3rd June 2016, 7:49
The current paying structure makes it hard to have more than 10 teams since only the first 10 get money.
If Manor stays 11th the next two years it will stop existing.
So no matter how good the Haas model is, in the end F1 itself does not promote the idea of more teams.
Sandbag
2nd April 2016, 15:04
Expect Mercedes to be sandbagging.
Ferrari gained 7 tenths since FP2, but the Mercs dropped by 1.5 seconds – they only gained 1 tenth in comparison to FP1, which was held under similar daylight conditions (albeit cooler).
I’m pretty sure they didn’t show their hand in FP3, because they are pretty confident that they’ll be untouchable in quali, so they focussed on more race-relevant simulations. I fully expect them to stun the competition when it counts.
digitalrurouni
2nd April 2016, 16:16
So it still seems that Ferrari have their traditional advantages of being softer on tire wear and also being able to extract more performance out of said tires when the temps are hot. Is that a correct statement? I think FP3 is held more during the day time and not in the cooler evenings like FP4 and Qualifying and the race, right? I wonder if their kindness to tires = less friction and less heat equals to it’s more difficult for them to switch the tires on compared to Mercedes. But that then turns in to an advantage on an already hot track. Either way is it just me or is this season already a bit more exciting than last year? I think Rosberg has the advantage over Lewis in terms of getting the most out of the material given to both.