Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz topped the leaderboard in the third and final practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix, leading Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for a Spanish one-two.
The final free practice session of the inaugural Grand Prix weekend of the 2024 Formula 1 season got underway at 15:30 local time (12:30 GMT) – with its daytime running putting track temperatures in stark contrast to what is expected of qualifying later on Friday.
Lewis Hamilton, fastest in FP2 on Thursday, cut a lonely figure in the opening stages of the session as he went out on soft tyres to set an early benchmark of 1:32.733s.
A few minutes later the Ferrari duo of Sainz and Charles Leclerc ventured out onto the circuit and duly posted times either side of Hamilton’s, with Leclerc leaving the charge.
But nobody was in a hurry to put laps on the board at the start of the session and it was a slow trickle effect as competitors made their way out of the pits.
As the bulk of the field finally put times on the board, the majority were on soft tyres, with Alonso, who cooled Aston Martin expectations after Thursday’s running, assuming the top spot halfway into the session courtesy of a 1:31.582s time.
Red Bull meanwhile, toured the Bahrain International Circuit on the Hard compound, in contradiction to its rivals and Max Verstappen sat 1.4s adrift of Alonso’s soft-shod benchmark.
With under 20 minutes remaining, the Red Bulls took on the soft Pirelli rubber and Sergio Perez duly jumped to the top of the leaderboard courtesy of a 1:31.248s laptime.
Moments later, Verstappen set purple sectors in both the first and second splits and ended up 0.186s under the Mexican’s time to take top spot.
The onus was then on the chasing pack to claw back the deficit to the Red Bulls as the session drew to a close.
Alonso reclaimed top spot by less than a tenth and Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri wedged in a gap between Verstappen and Perez to take third and fourth.
Sainz then pushed the benchmark further, clocking in a 1:30.824s time with just over five minutes to spare and he would remain at the top of the pack by the time the checkered flag fell.
Alonso’s time of 1:30.965s put him 0.141s adrift in second and Verstappen third in his Red Bull RB20, 0.238s back from Sainz’s benchmark.
Sainz’s Ferrari team-mate Leclerc took fourth, 0.270s behind and Norris completed the top five.
Next up was George Russell as the lead Mercedes in sixth, ahead of Piastri in seventh.
Perez, Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the top-10 in eighth, ninth and 10th.
With three different drivers from as many teams taking it in turns to top each practice session, it’s anyone’s guess regarding who will claim pole in qualifying, which commences at 19:00 local time (16:00 GMT).
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