Max Verstappen was quickest during the third and final practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix, less than a tenth faster than Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen’s best time of a 1’32.544 saw him go fastest in the final one hour session prior to qualifying, with Leclerc just 0.096s slower and Verstappen’s Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez third fastest, a quarter of a second behind.George Russell was fourth fastest in the Mercedes, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Lewis Hamilton, with Kevin Magnussen seventh for Haas and Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu eighth and ninth for Alfa Romeo.
Leclerc had a spin at turn 11, resulting his Ferrari skidding into the gravel. Fortunately, he was able to drive out of the gravel trap, allowing both he and the session itself to continue.
Carlos Sainz Jnr has been summoned to the stewards after he was released from the pitlane into the path of Fernando Alonso, forcing the Alpine to stop his car.
Yuki Tsunoda failed to leave the garage for the session after his AlphaTauri developed a hydraulic fault as his team attempted to fire up the car at the start of the session.
2022 Bahrain Grand Prix third practice result
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1’32.544 | 15 | |
| 2 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’32.640 | 0.096 | 16 |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1’32.791 | 0.247 | 20 |
| 4 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1’32.935 | 0.391 | 19 |
| 5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’33.053 | 0.509 | 20 |
| 6 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’33.121 | 0.577 | 15 |
| 7 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’33.437 | 0.893 | 15 |
| 8 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’33.733 | 1.189 | 21 |
| 9 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’33.880 | 1.336 | 18 |
| 10 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’33.920 | 1.376 | 14 |
| 11 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’33.955 | 1.411 | 18 |
| 12 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’33.971 | 1.427 | 18 |
| 13 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | 1’34.176 | 1.632 | 18 |
| 14 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1’34.295 | 1.751 | 17 |
| 15 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’34.378 | 1.834 | 20 |
| 16 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1’34.628 | 2.084 | 15 |
| 17 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 1’34.868 | 2.324 | 15 |
| 18 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1’34.957 | 2.413 | 16 |
| 19 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’35.667 | 3.123 | 14 |
Third practice visual gaps
Max Verstappen – 1’32.544
+0.096 Charles Leclerc – 1’32.640
+0.247 Sergio Perez – 1’32.791
+0.391 George Russell – 1’32.935
+0.509 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’33.053
+0.577 Lewis Hamilton – 1’33.121
+0.893 Kevin Magnussen – 1’33.437
+1.189 Valtteri Bottas – 1’33.733
+1.336 Zhou Guanyu – 1’33.880
+1.376 Lance Stroll – 1’33.920
+1.411 Lando Norris – 1’33.955
+1.427 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’33.971
+1.632 Pierre Gasly – 1’34.176
+1.751 Mick Schumacher – 1’34.295
+1.834 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’34.378
+2.084 Fernando Alonso – 1’34.628
+2.324 Alexander Albon – 1’34.868
+2.413 Esteban Ocon – 1’34.957
+3.123 Nicholas Latifi – 1’35.667
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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2022 Bahrain Grand Prix
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Pat
19th March 2022, 13:39
What I find impressive is how fast these cars are already.
Boomerang
19th March 2022, 14:25
Really? Firstly I thought I was watching ‘slow mo’, then I thought they are on cool down lap. But, that was yesterday, they’re ‘much faster’ today.
kpcart
19th March 2022, 15:03
mate, they are fast. the last 30 years of f1 must look snail crawl to you if these look slow mo. to you slow is a barometer only by laps times, numbers over what is actually occuring
Jere (@jerejj)
19th March 2022, 13:39
Finally, no more sessions left before finding out the competitive order.
erikje
19th March 2022, 13:46
So Mercedes removed some f the sandbags.
More importantly the position of magnussen. Let’s hope Haas can keep up.
newguy
19th March 2022, 13:53
they (mercedes) are exactly where they said they’d be: behind redbull and ferrari
Gill
19th March 2022, 14:15
Sandbags! the winners of the 8 Mercedes tittles is the engine design team. RB maybe fast in the corners but that engine owns the straights.
Boomerang
19th March 2022, 14:26
Yeah, I agree with you but porpoising is limiting their top speed performance. There is much more time left in that car.
Lisa Simpson
19th March 2022, 14:57
Don’t worry, Pirellis here to save the Mercs by raising the minimum pressures by 0.5 in both front and rear. Now is 23 front and 21 rear.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
19th March 2022, 15:10
You must be new Lisa. It’s usually Red Bull getting the Pirelli bailout.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
19th March 2022, 14:13
Q2 should be fun…
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
19th March 2022, 14:17
Once again very tight at the top between Ferrari and RB, just Sainz somehow isn’t able to get up to speed. Great lap by Russell as well and not too shabby for Hamilton.
I still have the feeling Ferrari were holding something back, because they were once again comfortably slower than RB on almost every straight, main straight in particular (7 kph at the end of the straight, 8 kph over the start/finish line at the very end of the lap).
Leclerc also set a PB best speed of 322 kph earlier on his first run (fastest lap: 312 kph), but that was still 0.4 slower than his overall PB time through S1. That suggest that Ferrari has still plenty to offer in terms of engine modes for qualy.
It could still go either way, between Verstappen and Leclerc. Bring on qualifying!
Robbie (@robbie)
19th March 2022, 14:25
@srga91 I see no reason not to think that if Ferrari were still not showing their cards, neither was RBR.
Boomerang
19th March 2022, 14:29
RB is constantly running higher engine modes than SF. So…
erikje
19th March 2022, 14:41
And you know that because….?