World Champion Max Verstappen remained on top during third practice for Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc again close by.
Verstappen set a time of 1:32.544s that was not bettered by his opponents despite not clocking another hot lap following a lock-up into Turn 1.
His benchmark effort in FP3 was over half a second slower than he managed during Friday’s FP2 session, which was held in more representative weather conditions.
Verstappen’s closest rival proved to be Charles Leclerc, who recovered from a wild spin through Turn 11 to classify 0.096s behind the Red Bull driver.
Sergio Perez was third for Red Bull, with George Russell again the fastest Mercedes driver in fourth, four-tenths behind Verstappen.
Carlos Sainz was fifth for Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton placed sixth for Mercedes.
Kevin Magnussen preserved Haas’ encouraging Friday pace by classifying seventh.
Alfa Romeo underlined its potential as Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu claimed eighth and ninth respectively.
Lance Stroll put Aston Martin into the top 10, at the expense of McLaren’s Lando Norris, with Nico Hulkenberg quietly impressive in 12th spot.
AlphaTauri had a difficult session; Pierre Gasly was 13th while Yuki Tsunoda did not emerge from the garage due to a hydraulics issue.
Tsunoda tried to head out on track but was unable to steer the car.
Daniel Ricciardo was a low-key 15th for McLaren, while Alpine was low down the pecking order after opting not to run the Soft tyres in the unrepresentative daytime conditions.
Williams was once more slowest, with Alexander Albon 17th and 2.3s off the ultimate pace.
Saturday’s qualifying session is scheduled for 18:00 local time
Position Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1
Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.544 15 2
Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:32.640 0.096 16 3
Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:32.791 0.247 20 4
George Russell Mercedes 1:32.935 0.391 19 5
Carlos Sainz Jr Ferrari 1:33.053 0.509 20 6
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.121 0.577 15 7
Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:33.437 0.893 15 8
Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:33.733 1.189 21 9
Guanyu Zhou Sauber 1:33.880 1.336 18 10
Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:33.920 1.376 14 11
Lando Norris McLaren 1:33.955 1.411 18 12
Nico Hulkenberg Aston Martin 1:33.971 1.427 18 13
Pierre Gasly RB 1:34.176 1.632 18 14
Mick Schumacher Haas 1:34.295 1.751 17 15
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:34.378 1.834 20 16
Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:34.628 2.084 15 17
Alex Albon Williams 1:34.868 2.324 15 18
Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:34.957 2.413 16 19
Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:35.667 3.123 14 20
Yuki Tsunoda RB 0