The third free practice for the Sakhir Grand Prix went fairly smoothly, except for a spin by Verstappen and Leclerc. The Dutchman nevertheless managed to climb to the top of the times list, while Bottas has shown what he is worth to Russell.
It is bone dry on the track in Bahrain. The times that the drivers clock here are actually under a minute without exception. Even Pietro Fittipaldi, who is filling in for Grosjean, set a time of 56.4 on his first timed lap during the third free practice. He later improved that time to 56.2. In the first fifteen minutes nobody else had appeared on the track.
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After that, however, it went quite quickly. In the second fifteen minutes the drivers went for it en masse. Bottas set the fastest time with 54.5 and Russell followed with half a second. The Finn seemed to want to make up for what he missed in speed yesterday. With a time of 55: 091, Verstappen ended up in third position, with which he just failed to break the 55-second limit. The Dutchman made a minor flaw by spinning, but that had no further consequences.
Teammate Alexander Albon lost his time a few times because he went too wide. He did not get further than eighth place after the first half hour. Gasly and Kvyat meanwhile performed quite well, as they both took the last two positions of the top 5. The pace of Sebastian Vettel, which as yet did not go further than 17th place.
But Vettel recovered and clocked a second time with 54.858. However, he was soon outclassed by Leclerc, who managed to beat him by 3 hundredths. The difference between Bottas and Russell was still nearly four tenths from the last fifteen minutes. Verstappen meanwhile got stuck in sixth fastest time. It could be worse, because Albon had not progressed beyond the twelfth time.
Verstappen made an attempt on the softs and immediately hit a time of 54: 064. With that he suddenly came to the top of the times list with a margin of more than two tenths on Bottas. The Finn no longer made up for that difference in the final phase. George Russell may have to worry more in the run-up to qualifying: the gap with Bottas is suddenly six tenths. Also notable was the third time for Pierre Gasly. Finally some test starts were done by different drivers. Leclerc managed to raise eyebrows at the last minute by a spider.
In any case, that qualification has it in it to be exciting, because the difference between Verstappen and last-minute Aiken is only 1.6 seconds. The field is therefore very close together. You will see who will eventually take pole position at 18:00 during qualifying.
View the full results below:
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