Formula 1 faces this Saturday its sixth and final day of pre-season training, the third on a Sakhir circuit in which he will be qualifying at this point next week. The morning of this last day of tests has seen important tests of different kinds by the teams, and the emergence of Red Bull at the top of the time table thanks to Sergio Pérezthe fastest in the four hours of the morning session.
Halfway through the session, the Mexican driver stretched the legs of his Red Bull RB18 a bit and set the fastest time of the week, a 1:33.105 with C4 tire who beat Kevin Magnussen’s time by one tenth in the “extra time” of the second day. Prior to this, the Austrian team had hardly run due to the installation of a new aerodynamic package, which includes a redesign of the sidepods and the rear section of the car. All this, while rumors continue to circulate in the paddock that point to this car as the potential enemy to beat if the long run times are checked next week.
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As happened in Barcelona, Ferrari lost a bit in terms of positions in the table at the beginning of this third day, with Carlos Sainz occupying the fourth morning position. In fact, his 1:34.905 was produced with the softest compound available, a C5 which will not be used in the Grand Prix, so it is expected that there will be ample room for improvement in this aspect throughout the afternoon. Far more worrying was the appearance, for the first time, of the ‘porpoising/marsupeo’ effect in the last hour of filming, which prevented Sainz from braking as much as possible during some of his laps.
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They finished ahead of Sainz Guanyu Zhoueight tenths behind Pérez with the same compound in his Alfa Romeo, and Pierre Gasley with the AlphaTauri. In fact, the French driver starred in one of the highlights of the week when he beat a intense duel with Lewis Hamilton. Both drivers followed each other, overtook and passed each other for several laps despite the fact that the Mercedes had a softer tire, highlighting the short distances between the two cars at almost all points of the circuit, the selective use of DRS depending on the lap and the good performance of the tires on both vehicles.
Both have been the two riders who have done the most laps this morning, although Mercedes did not seem to hit the key to reduce the rattle either in the car driven by Hamilton, who did not chase a great time outright and finished penultimate among the 10 competitors. There was also no luck in this aspect with Alpine, being a major headache for a Fernando Alonso who began his full day with a progressive program. The Spaniard went from less to more until he set the fifth fastest time, a 1:35.328 with a C4 tire, with 54 laps to his credit.
only surpassed Haas VF-22, which had a time offset again for his late arrival on Thursday shooting in the hour before the official start. There Kevin Magnussen completed a total of 18 laps, although in the following four hours he barely appeared after a recurring problem with a water leak. In the same way, McLarenwith Lando Norris at the wheel again after Daniel Ricciardo’s positive for COVID-19, was again on the lower side of the mileage, although in this case due to the installation of his new brake components to solve the problems of overheating that have affected them these two days.
TIMES OF THE THIRD DAY OF TEST IN BAHRAIN (MORNING SESSION)
There are only four more hours left to finish the season, and only Norris and Alonso will remain in their cars, with the rest of the teams opting to take over from their drivers for the evening sunset session. You can follow all its news in the direct writing of MOTOR.ES, as well as in our new twitch channelwhere David Moreno and David Plaza will update the latest data and perceptions from 15:00.
Photos: Formula 1