Sainz puts Ferrari on top as half a second covers top 10 in tight final practice

Carlos Sainz Jnr was the fastest driver in the final practice session before qualifying for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

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Ferrari’s ascendancy to the top of the times means the trio of sessions so far have been headed by three different drivers and teams.

All 20 drivers were covered by just over 1.5s from Sainz’s best time of a 1’30.824 to Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

Fernando Alonso was the closest to Sainz’s best time, which was set in the final ten minutes of the session. Max Verstappen was third fastest for Red Bull after setting his quickest time of the session while running behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who ended the session fourth.

The McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were split by George Russell in sixth, with Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll completing the top ten.

Most of the field chose to run only on the soft compound tyres throughout the final hour of running before the first qualifying of the year. Only Red Bull opted to try out the hard compound early on, with Verstappen reporting they felt “terrible”.

There was not a single yellow flag incident across the hour’s running. Esteban Ocon completed the fewest laps in his Alpine with just 11 and was heard reporting of a vibration under braking with his new A524. Nonetheless he was the quickest of the two Alpine drivers, and the only one of the pair to out-pace a rival car.

After suggesting that Red Bull had not run their power units at full power on Thursday, Verstappen and team mate Perez both featured in the top six of the speed trap rankings, with the Haas cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen quickest and both Mercedes and McLarens slowest.

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2024 Bahrain Grand Prix third practice result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-24	1’30.824		18
2	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR24	1’30.965	0.141	18
3	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB20	1’31.062	0.238	16
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-24	1’31.094	0.270	17
5	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL38	1’31.118	0.294	12
6	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W15	1’31.190	0.366	12
7	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL38	1’31.210	0.386	13
8	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB20	1’31.248	0.424	17
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-24	1’31.278	0.454	13
10	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR24	1’31.396	0.572	17
11	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB-Honda RBPT	01	1’31.449	0.625	13
12	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W15	1’31.452	0.628	20
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	01	1’31.631	0.807	14
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-24	1’31.671	0.847	20
15	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW46	1’31.965	1.141	17
16	24	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber-Ferrari	C44	1’32.000	1.176	17
17	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber-Ferrari	C44	1’32.096	1.272	16
18	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A524	1’32.124	1.300	11
19	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW46	1’32.125	1.301	16
20	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A524	1’32.382	1.558	14

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2024 Bahrain Grand Prix combined practice times

P.	#	Driver	Team	FP1 time	FP2 time	FP3 time	Gap	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’33.302	1’30.374	1’31.452		67
2	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1’33.251	1’30.580	1’31.190	0.206	60
3	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’33.193	1’30.660	1’30.965	0.286	60
4	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	1’33.385	1’30.769	1’30.824	0.395	69
5	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1’33.113	1’30.784	1’31.210	0.410	65
6	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’33.238	1’30.851	1’31.062	0.477	62
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1’37.938	1’30.884	1’31.278	0.510	63
8	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’33.868	1’30.891	1’31.396	0.517	63
9	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’33.268	1’31.113	1’31.094	0.720	67
10	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’33.413	1’31.115	1’31.248	0.741	67
11	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1’32.901	1’32.608	1’31.118	0.744	62
12	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1’33.583	1’31.333	1’31.965	0.959	60
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB-Honda RBPT	1’32.869	1’31.516	1’31.449	1.075	62
14	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	1’33.183	1’31.881	1’31.631	1.257	67
15	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’37.477	1’31.764	1’31.671	1.297	72
16	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1’34.213	1’31.715	1’32.125	1.341	62
17	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1’35.144	1’31.951	1’32.382	1.577	63
18	24	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber-Ferrari	1’33.923	1’32.048	1’32.000	1.626	61
19	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber-Ferrari	1’33.354	1’32.001	1’32.096	1.627	61
20	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1’34.807	1’32.027	1’32.124	1.653	57

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2024 Bahrain Grand Prix

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21 comments on “Sainz puts Ferrari on top as half a second covers top 10 in tight final practice”

Dale
1st March 2024, 14:06

Well at least we have F1’s top 5 drivers in the top 5 positions in Q3, which is good for the sport.

Edd
1st March 2024, 14:22
I suspect Red Bull sand bagging.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
1st March 2024, 14:25
I guess you were looking at the combined practice results, right?
That’s a bit cruel for the reigning champion… He’s definitely a top 5 driver.
1. Anuj
  1st March 2024, 14:37
  I am a Max fan. But I agree Lewis is definitely in top 5. I bet next year he will outscore Charles and put all the doubts to rest. Having said that Max would also have outscored Charles easily.
kpcart
1st March 2024, 14:48
nice try at slandering Lewis,.
1. Dale
  1st March 2024, 15:25
  Get a dictionary and learn what slander is.
  Won’t make your mancrush a top 5 though.

stefano (@alfa145)
1st March 2024, 14:25

is there no prediction championship this year? @keithcollantine

sato113 (@sato113)
1st March 2024, 14:31
Yeah where is this? I guess time is running out to post it! Before the race at least? @keithcollantine

Michael (@freelittlebirds)
1st March 2024, 14:30

So the 2 Mercedes cars posted the top times and Ferrari had equal times in P2 and P3. If the Ferraris are sand-bagging well they are both excellent at matching previous times.

We can probably tell that Alonso is not sandbagging and would love to put his Aston Martin at the very top of these practices with as much distance between himself and the 2nd driver.

I also suspect Perez would have disrupted the results and put himself ahead of Max if he was sandbagging or at least come up with a similar time to Max. They were both offer by a tenth and a tenth and a half today over yesterday.

I can’t wait until tomorrow!!!

Michael (@freelittlebirds)
1st March 2024, 14:32

Looks like Merc’s pace in P2 is genuine. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
1st March 2024, 14:34

I feel that Alpine are on a downward spiral that leads to the team being sold to Andretti.

Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
1st March 2024, 14:38
@eurobrun same… can’t see them swallowing another couple of years of a huge finantial effort to maybe become 4th fastest team again. They’ll cut their losses earlier than expected.
1. Dale
  1st March 2024, 15:30
  LOL, even if you’re dead last in F1 you’re making financial profit under the cost cap regs & the current demand for the sport.
  Keep up.
  How do you guys follow the sport enough to comment, but not enough to know what’s happening?
  1. Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
    1st March 2024, 19:58
    You seem to know it all yet you fail to realize it’s not a good look to come last, specially for a company as big as Renault.
    Even if they make a profit doesn’t mean it’s a successful business.
kpcart
1st March 2024, 14:49
Their engine sucks, and the other teams wont let them upgrade it to be competitive.

Ben
1st March 2024, 14:35

Still expect RedBull to have a big buffer in race pace, but it looks extremely close between Perez,Aston,Ferrari,Mercedes and McLaren.

Let’s see what happens this afternoon when everyone is slow fuel, full power.

Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
1st March 2024, 14:47

Maybe Red Bull turns up the engine later today and blasts everyone, but everywhere else it’s looking tight. It’s very healthy to see the field all bunched up inside a 2 second gap.

Frank
1st March 2024, 15:33
It’s very healthy to see the field all bunched up inside a 2 second gap.
Very good signs, but let’s not read too much into it just yet.It is only FP and even if the pattern repeats in qualifying, that does not necessarily guarantee a competitive season, nor do large gaps guarantee a dull season.
At the first race in 1997, Villeneuve was a staggering 1.7 seconds faster than second-placed Frentzen Nevertheless, it turned out to be an incredibly close season, with race-by-race changes in which only Tyrell and Minardi did not reach the podium.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have last season, which oftern featured tiny margins in qualifying, but an unprecedented rout in the championship.
1. MichaelN
  1st March 2024, 15:42
  It’s still weird that Schumacher and Villeneuve were never on the podium together in 1997. Odd season!
  1. Esploratore (@esploratore1)
    2nd March 2024, 2:02
    Indeed, they would’ve been the last race if not for the famous accident and schumacher had a technical issue in silverstone, where otherwise they also would’ve been both on the podium.