The last test day in Bahrain went very quietly. Track conditions were much better than earlier this weekend, which has clearly had a positive impact. Pérez ended the session with the fastest time, closely followed by Leclerc and Norris.
The Bahrain International Circuit was released again this morning at the stroke of 08:00. With this, the last test day prior to the 2020 Formula 1 season has officially started. Kimi Raikkonen, who had to sit out yesterday, was the first to take to the track for an installation lap, followed by the other nine drivers. Charles Leclerc set the first timed lap quite quickly with a lap time of 1.32.959.
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Aero rakes
After a short visit to the pits, Sergio Pérez returned to the track fairly quickly. He was allowed on the track for the first time this weekend with the aero rakes from Red Bull Racing. The Mexican has ridden in the RB16B all Saturday, but was immediately allowed to start with ‘normal’ laps and had not driven with this measuring equipment until today. A number of other drivers also soon switched to a few laps with the aero rakes. It is abundantly clear that the teams still have enough data to collect on this last test day for the upcoming Formula 1 season.
Low fuel runs en Flow Vis
After half an hour, Charles Leclerc set a time of 1.30.486, setting the tone for the rest of the session. This time was only two tenths slower than the fastest time that Valtteri Bottas managed to set on Saturday afternoon. Interestingly, the competition at this point was not yet able to match that time, so it was suspected that the Monegask was engaged in an early qualifying simulation. After a somewhat quiet period, Pierre Gasly also took to the track again, this time with the green one Flow Vispaint on its new AT02.
Quiet session
After that it remained fairly quiet on the track. The drivers occasionally took to the track for a few laps, with the other drivers slowly but surely getting closer to Leclerc’s time. With just under 1 hour and 25 minutes left on the clock, Pérez finally managed to pass Leclerc’s time. The Mexican driver clocked a time of 1.30.309, which made him 17 hundredths faster than the Ferraridriver. With just under forty minutes on the counter, the Red Bull driver managed to go over his former fastest time, with a 1.30.187.
The ranking has not changed in the last hour of the session, after which the red flag was waved at 11:55 am to close the session.
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