Max Verstappen put Red Bull on top in the final practice session after Romain Grosjean brought out the red flags by crashing.
The Haas driver complained several times about set-up problems on his car and had just changed his front wing when his car snapped sideways into the barrier at the exit of turn four. Grosjean was able to return to the pits during the ensuing red flag and continue his session.
Once practice resumed Sebastian Vettel headed the times for Ferrari with the top four drivers briefly covered by just five hundredths of a second. However Verstappen’s late effort lowered the benchmark by over half a second. However it remained over half a second off the best time from the same session last year.
Lewis Hamilton improved to second place with his final run. He was quickest of all through the first two sectors but lost time at the end of the lap.
Daniel Ricciardo’s best effort left him at the tail of the close bunch of drivers led by Vettel. Nico Hulkenberg put his Renault in the top ten ahead of the two Toro Rossos.
High temperatures meant most of the front-running teams left it until the final minutes of the session to run. The track temperatures reached 38C and are unlikely to be replicated in the evening’s qualifying session.
Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’32.194 | 8 | |
2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’32.304 | 0.110 | 10 |
3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’32.750 | 0.556 | 10 |
4 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’32.754 | 0.560 | 13 |
5 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’32.785 | 0.591 | 9 |
6 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’32.801 | 0.607 | 12 |
7 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’32.809 | 0.615 | 8 |
8 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’32.933 | 0.739 | 9 |
9 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’33.604 | 1.410 | 18 |
10 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’33.744 | 1.550 | 11 |
11 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’33.916 | 1.722 | 14 |
12 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’33.922 | 1.728 | 10 |
13 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’33.947 | 1.753 | 15 |
14 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’33.965 | 1.771 | 15 |
15 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Honda | 1’34.027 | 1.833 | 15 |
16 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’34.064 | 1.870 | 17 |
17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’34.198 | 2.004 | 13 |
18 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’34.205 | 2.011 | 14 |
19 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’34.268 | 2.074 | 15 |
20 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’34.417 | 2.223 | 11 |
Third practice visual gaps
Max Verstappen – 1’32.194
+0.110 Lewis Hamilton – 1’32.304
+0.556 Sebastian Vettel – 1’32.750
+0.560 Valtteri Bottas – 1’32.754
+0.591 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’32.785
+0.607 Felipe Massa – 1’32.801
+0.615 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’32.809
+0.739 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’32.933
+1.410 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’33.604
+1.550 Daniil Kvyat – 1’33.744
+1.722 Sergio Perez – 1’33.916
+1.728 Fernando Alonso – 1’33.922
+1.753 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’33.947
+1.771 Lance Stroll – 1’33.965
+1.833 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’34.027
+1.870 Esteban Ocon – 1’34.064
+2.004 Kevin Magnussen – 1’34.198
+2.011 Romain Grosjean – 1’34.205
+2.074 Marcus Ericsson – 1’34.268
+2.223 Jolyon Palmer – 1’34.417
Combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’32.697 | 1’31.310 | 1’32.750 | +1.44 | 60 |
2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’35.002 | 1’31.351 | 1’32.754 | +1.403 | 75 |
3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’33.097 | 1’31.376 | 1’32.809 | +1.433 | 58 |
4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’42.333 | 1’31.478 | 1’32.785 | +1.307 | 49 |
5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’34.636 | 1’31.594 | 1’32.304 | +0.71 | 73 |
6 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’34.927 | 1’31.883 | 1’32.933 | +1.05 | 59 |
7 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’34.246 | 1’32.079 | 1’32.801 | +0.722 | 73 |
8 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’33.566 | 1’32.245 | 1’32.194 | -0.051 | 49 |
9 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’34.564 | 1’32.505 | 1’34.205 | +1.7 | 69 |
10 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’34.838 | 1’32.707 | 1’33.744 | +1.037 | 59 |
11 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’35.579 | 1’32.854 | 1’34.198 | +1.344 | 67 |
12 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’34.332 | 1’32.875 | 1’34.064 | +1.189 | 78 |
13 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’35.068 | 1’32.876 | 1’34.417 | +1.541 | 68 |
14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’34.372 | 1’32.897 | 1’33.922 | +1.025 | 55 |
15 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’34.095 | 1’33.319 | 1’33.916 | +0.597 | 70 |
16 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’34.322 | 1’33.361 | 1’33.965 | +0.604 | 76 |
17 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’36.079 | 1’34.072 | 1’33.604 | -0.468 | 39 |
18 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’35.888 | 1’33.944 | 1’34.268 | +0.324 | 72 |
19 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’35.959 | 1’34.117 | 1’33.947 | -0.17 | 67 |
20 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Honda | 1’34.997 | 1’34.230 | 1’34.027 | -0.203 | 33 |
Don’t forget to make your predictions
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2017 Bahrain Grand Prix
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hahostolze (@hahostolze)
15th April 2017, 13:56
Please let Red Bull be genuinely competitive. Would be so nice.
MG421982 (@)
15th April 2017, 16:19
Do not think so, VET was like 1 second faster yesterday!
Friederike (@rike)
15th April 2017, 14:01
Well yesterday’s top times were nearly a second faster…. So again noone knows anything until qualifying
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
15th April 2017, 14:07
@rike Yeah this has been a very weird weekend so far.
RedBull over a second back in both Australia and China would normaly mean they’d be even more hampered by their engine deficit in Bahrain. However, so far they have been very close instead.
The Merc’s, for the same engine related reasons, should be a bit faster compared to RB and Ferrari but they are not by a long shot.
To top it off FP3 times are slower than the FP2 and even FP1 times and instead of being 5 seconds quicker, this year’s times seem to be SLOWER than last year’s.
SM
15th April 2017, 14:23
Bahrain is more of a chassis track than people give credit for. and although it has more straights than say china, the straights are, relatively speaking, short.
hence why McLaren are closer to the front, only 1.5 or 1.7 seconds behind the fastest whereas in Australia and china it was more like 2.3 etc
i’d love to see a comparison of onboards between perez and alonso
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
15th April 2017, 14:28
But look at the recent past, from 2014 onwards it was the Merc powered cars that dominated Bahrain. Not just Mercedes but also Williams, Force India and even McLaren in 2014 with Merc power dominated the high scoring positions. RedBull, Ferrari and the other cars with their power struggled massively.
And on the chassis, RedBull weren’t over a second behind just on engine power (that’s not even .5 seconds I recon). They are behind in terms of chassis as well.
sm
15th April 2017, 15:04
Well it could be a number of factors, perhaps red bull found the sweet spot with regards to suspension setup and the tires. Renault isn’t that far behind either this year. This track could suit red bulls car more than Australia and china… etc etc. As I said it could be a combo of many factors. Anyhow, its great to see!
Formula1 (@s2g-unit)
15th April 2017, 14:31
Slower….aka Pirelli’s overly hard tyre non grippy AND non durable tyres.
Oli (@dh1996)
15th April 2017, 14:33
I am 100% cautiously excited for qualifying this weekend.
Mick
15th April 2017, 14:41
It’s too hot poor turbos.
reh1v2.0 (@reh1v2-0)
15th April 2017, 15:11
Preserving engines?