Max Verstappen underlined the potential of Red Bull’s RB16B as he finished comfortably clear of his rivals during final practice for Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Verstappen topped both of Friday’s sessions ahead of the new campaign and extended his margin during the daytime FP3 session, held in exceptionally hot conditions.
As drivers carried out runs on Soft tyres Verstappen clocked a time of 1:30.577s to finish over seven-tenths clear of World Champion Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen was fastest through all three sectors of the 5.4km circuit with his margin largest through the downforce-heavy middle section.
Hamilton was the only other driver to finish within a second of Verstappen’s benchmark.
Gasly heads AlphaTauri charge
While Verstappen moved emphatically clear fellow Honda-powered squad AlphaTauri also showed encouraging speed.
Pierre Gasly finished third overall to classify ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, who both trailed their respective team-mates.
Carlos Sainz emerged as lead Ferrari driver once more, taking sixth, while Kimi Raikkonen claimed a strong seventh for Alfa Romeo.
Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll put Alpine and Aston Martin into the top 10 while their team-mates had a more subdued showing.
Four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel was only 14th while the returning Fernando Alonso classified 15th.
McLaren regress after strong Friday
McLaren finished as the second-fastest team on Friday courtesy of Lando Norris but slipped down the timesheets on Saturday.
Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10 while Lando Norris was a low-key 16th in the sister MCL35M.
Williams and Haas once more finished at the back, with George Russell eclipsing reigning Formula 2 champion Mick Schumacher by a tenth of a second.
Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix is scheduled to begin at 18:00 local time.
[motorsport_result id=’59273′]
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