Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Bahrain International Circuit, 2019

Leclerc keeps Ferrari on top in final practice

2019 Bahrain Grand Prix third practice

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Charles Leclerc ensured Ferrari led all three practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix by heading the final hour of running before qualifying.

Leclerc led team mate Sebastian Vettel by just over a tenth of a second after a tidy lap on soft tyres produced a time of 1’29.569. However this was over seven-tenths of a second off the best time seen yesterday, likely due to the hotter conditions final practice is held in.

While the Ferrari drivers did their flying runs earlier in the session, the Mercedes drivers waited until the final minutes before setting their best times. Lewis Hamilton took third with a 1’30.334, over three-quarters of a second slower than Leclerc, while Bottas was fourth after running wide.

Red Bull continued to lag behind the pace on the soft compound tyres. Max Verstappen’s last effort was only good enough for the eighth-fastest time. However in a tight midfield he was just 0.151 seconds off fifth place, held by Romain Grosjean’s Haas. Nico Hulkenberg and Lando Norris also out-paced the Red Bull driver.

Carlos Sainz Jnr gave encouragement to McLaren by joining his team mate in the top 10, and also to Renault as three of their cars appeared in the top half of the field. Daniil Kvyat completed the top 10 for Toro Rosso.

The first of the Alfa Romeos was Kimi Raikkonen in 11th place, followed closely by Pierre Gasly’s Red Bull and Kevin Magnussen in the other Haas. The Racing Point pair were next, Lance Stroll ahead of Sergio Perez.

Daniel Ricciardo had another difficult session in his Renault, ending up 16th. The Williams pair look set for another tough qualifying session as George Russell ended up 1.2 seconds shy of the rest of the field following a DRS glitch at the start of the session.

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Pos. No. Driver Car Best lap Gap Laps
1 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1’29.569 15
2 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’29.738 0.169 16
3 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’30.334 0.765 10
4 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1’30.389 0.820 12
5 8 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1’30.818 1.249 14
6 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1’30.910 1.341 12
7 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Renault 1’30.955 1.386 15
8 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1’30.959 1.390 10
9 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr McLaren-Renault 1’30.965 1.396 14
10 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Honda 1’31.173 1.604 17
11 7 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1’31.333 1.764 21
12 10 Pierre Gasly Red Bull-Honda 1’31.392 1.823 13
13 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1’31.540 1.971 13
14 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point-Mercedes 1’31.618 2.049 16
15 11 Sergio Perez Racing Point-Mercedes 1’31.638 2.069 9
16 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1’31.643 2.074 11
17 23 Alexander Albon Toro Rosso-Honda 1’31.679 2.110 17
18 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1’32.132 2.563 21
19 63 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 1’33.387 3.818 14
20 88 Robert Kubica Williams-Mercedes 1’33.525 3.956 13

Third practice visual gaps

Charles Leclerc – 1’29.569

+0.169 Sebastian Vettel – 1’29.738

+0.765 Lewis Hamilton – 1’30.334

+0.820 Valtteri Bottas – 1’30.389

+1.249 Romain Grosjean – 1’30.818

+1.341 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’30.910

+1.386 Lando Norris – 1’30.955

+1.390 Max Verstappen – 1’30.959

+1.396 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’30.965

+1.604 Daniil Kvyat – 1’31.173

+1.764 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’31.333

+1.823 Pierre Gasly – 1’31.392

+1.971 Kevin Magnussen – 1’31.540

+2.049 Lance Stroll – 1’31.618

+2.069 Sergio Perez – 1’31.638

+2.074 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’31.643

+2.110 Alexander Albon – 1’31.679

+2.563 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’32.132

+3.818 George Russell – 1’33.387

+3.956 Robert Kubica – 1’33.525

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Pos Driver Car FP1 FP2 FP3 Fri/Sat diff Total laps
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’30.617 1’28.846 1’29.738 +0.892 69
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1’30.354 1’28.881 1’29.569 +0.688 67
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’31.601 1’29.449 1’30.334 +0.885 66
4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1’31.328 1’29.557 1’30.389 +0.832 74
5 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1’32.040 1’29.669 1’30.910 +1.241 61
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1’31.673 1’29.725 1’30.959 +1.234 65
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1’32.602 1’30.000 1’31.540 +1.54 67
8 Lando Norris McLaren-Renault 1’32.945 1’30.017 1’30.955 +0.938 69
9 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1’32.994 1’30.068 1’30.818 +0.75 70
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Honda 1’32.339 1’30.093 1’31.173 +1.08 77
11 Carlos Sainz Jnr McLaren-Renault 1’31.952 1’30.192 1’30.965 +0.773 75
12 Pierre Gasly Red Bull-Honda 1’31.815 1’30.429 1’31.392 +0.963 61
13 Alexander Albon Toro Rosso-Honda 1’32.874 1’30.458 1’31.679 +1.221 77
14 Sergio Perez Racing Point-Mercedes 1’32.885 1’30.716 1’31.638 +0.922 61
15 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1’32.401 1’30.848 1’31.643 +0.795 60
16 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1’32.385 1’31.088 1’31.333 +0.245 50
17 Lance Stroll Racing Point-Mercedes 1’33.518 1’31.129 1’31.618 +0.489 63
18 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1’32.949 1’31.144 1’32.132 +0.988 53
19 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 1’34.188 1’31.904 1’33.387 +1.483 72
20 Robert Kubica Williams-Mercedes 1’34.253 1’32.932 1’33.525 +0.593 77

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2019 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Leclerc keeps Ferrari on top in final practice”

  1. Ricciardo & Magnussen are just too far away than their teammates.

    1. @ruliemaulana Too early to jump to definite conclusions solely based on practice sessions. Qualifying and the race are what matters after all.

      1. @jerejj Maybe not Magnussen, but Ricciardo was behind Hulk in all three sessions.

        1. I admit I’m surprised but obviously the Renault is a different beast than the RB and either DR or the setup needs to change, I’m reminded of MotoGP and the problems multi world champ Jorge Lorenzo had with Ducati, by the time he convinced them to adjust the bike to his style of riding (and winning) it was too late for the relationship.

    2. These things should only be judged after a few races, sometimes damage is found on a car days later that explains time difference, ie Hamilton and Kubica in Melbourne. Yesterday kubica was one second off Russell, and he felt there was something aerodynamically wrong, today in free practice 3 he got a new floor (bleet in Melbourne spec) , so not optimised for this race, and he was only .1 off Russell. The same could turn out with Ricciardos current struggles, in modern f1, there is very little between the drivers in ability. Look at Hamilton in fp3 only 0.1 faster than his teammate being paid 1/10 the salary.

      1. That and I’ve got lots of patience for drivers new to a team with a teammate who is engrained there, they with far more data on the engrained driver and that driver far more accustomed to the feel of the car in general, even with the reg changes to the wings. Let’s give DR some more races and I’m sure before long both drivers will be equally limited by the car.

  2. To anyone who might worry about the lap times now that the FP3 top time was slower than the fastest FP2 time yesterday: I wouldn’t worry about that at all. First of all, this isn’t the first time that the fastest FP3 time has been slower than the FP2 equivalent on any given race weekend, and secondly, the temperatures are quite a bit different between the afternoon and the evening in the Middle East, so not really representative anyway.

    1. We all know that, and to casual fans it was explained on the TV coverage.

      1. Ain’t no TV coverage for casual fans in Australia !

  3. The midfield is well mixed, shame aero turbulence is as ever, horrendous.
    As the times suggest fp3 is a lot slower, qualifying is going to be quite different.

  4. Good to see the new young guns up there!
    Bodes well for their future in F1.

  5. georgeboole (@)
    30th March 2019, 13:49

    I m just surprised how well McLaren seems to be doing. Even if they dont make it to Q3 but stay close to P11-12 it will be a huge leap forward.

  6. The pilesitter is this year’s champ. You heard it here first. This kid is something else

Comments are closed.