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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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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- Mercedes start season with back-to-back one-twos for the first time
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ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
30th March 2019, 13:09
Ricciardo & Magnussen are just too far away than their teammates.
Jere (@jerejj)
30th March 2019, 13:10
@ruliemaulana Too early to jump to definite conclusions solely based on practice sessions. Qualifying and the race are what matters after all.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
30th March 2019, 13:18
@jerejj Maybe not Magnussen, but Ricciardo was behind Hulk in all three sessions.
@HoHum (@hohum)
30th March 2019, 21:24
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.
kpcart
30th March 2019, 13:23
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.
Robbie (@robbie)
30th March 2019, 13:37
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.
Jere (@jerejj)
30th March 2019, 13:09
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.
kpcart
30th March 2019, 13:25
We all know that, and to casual fans it was explained on the TV coverage.
@HoHum (@hohum)
30th March 2019, 21:27
Ain’t no TV coverage for casual fans in Australia !
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
30th March 2019, 13:12
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.
Andy Bunting (@wildbiker)
30th March 2019, 13:49
Good to see the new young guns up there!
Bodes well for their future in F1.
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.
Mike Genova
30th March 2019, 16:42
The pilesitter is this year’s champ. You heard it here first. This kid is something else