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Formula 1
Bahrain GP
F1 Bahrain GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 and Qualifying
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Perez was purple in the final sector - an ominous sign that the Honda engine in the back of the Red Bull could be a true match for the Merc this year.
Verstappen goes out again, but is on a set of mediums - so we'll have to wait and see how he directly matches up against Mercedes on the softs. Perez is using softs however and takes third, on a 1m31.908s.
Alonso meanwhile is on the mediums - he was P19 a few moments ago, but improves to P15 on a 1m34.466s. Will the Spaniard struggle to get out of Q1 later on?
Ricciardo duly jumps up to fifth, just behind Gasly, but Norris is half a second slower and only improves to eighth.
Norris and Ricciardo have bolted on a set of softs too, so watch for them to move up the leaderboard.
Hamilton goes purple in all three sectors there and is currently 1.3s quicker than Verstappen. But remember, the Red Bull man did his PB on hard tyres which are significantly slower.
Bottas now delivers a good lap to displace Sainz - the Finn is the first man into the 1m31s on a 1m31.855s, but his time is immediately bettered by Hamilton's 1m31.316s. Mercedes sits 1-2 for the time being.
Stopwatch
Meanwhile the Ferraris have bolted on a set of medium compound tyres - and Sainz duly moves to P1, with a 1m32.108s, and Leclerc third on a 1m32.482s.
Bottas has gone out again on a set of the soft tyres. He's churned through a few of those already, clearly trying to gain confidence for qualifying.
AlphaTauri not hanging around as Tsunoda launches up to P6 on a 1m33.482s before both come into the pits after their soft-tyre runs.
Stopwatch
We have a new fastest man - it's Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri, logging a 1m32.321s.
It's rather unusual to see Bottas and Vettel bringing up the rear isn't it? Bottas has had numerous laps taken away for track limits and his best that still stands is a 1m36.179s. Aston newboy Vettel meanwhile has only been out on the hard tyre and - as he said yesterday - still feels there's plenty left on the table as he continues to bed into his new surroundings.
Alfa has used soft tyres to move into P6 and P7, with Raikkonen just half a tenth behind Giovinazzi despite losing most of FP2 yesterday. That said, he's probably driven around Bahrain more times than I've done Zoom quizzes over this past year.
Verstappen set a personal best first sector before arriving upon the scene of the spun Haas and having to back out. Red Bull now fastest in all three sectors, it should be noted, with Perez now quickest in sector three.
Perez is having a run on the soft tyres and moves up to sixth, a 1m33.078s. Meanwhile, Mazepin has had a spin down at Turn 7 in the Haas.
Gasly and Tsunoda are running on softs, and the 2020 Italian GP winner duly catapults up the leaderboard to second on a 1m32.739s. Tsunoda was in the mid-35s on that last lap, which suggests he made an error somewhere.
Interestingly, Hamilton still has the fastest first and third sectors, with Verstappen quickest through the twisty middle section.
As Bottas has yet another lap deleted for track limits at Turn 4 - he's going to need to kick that habit for qualifying - Norris shoots up to third on a 1m32.981s, fractionally behind Hamilton. Giovinazzi also moves up to fourth on softs, albeit almost a full second slower than Verstappen's hard tyre effort.
Stopwatch
Verstappen has gone out on hards and - what do you know - he's quicker than Hamilton's early benchmark on the softs. Was that a statement lap from the Dutchman? It's a 1m32.617s, three tenths up on the seven-time champion.
*Bottas Turn 4 track limits klaxon*
Stopwatch
Now Perez moves into second, but still over 0.8s behind Hamilton on a 1m33.764s.
Norris has aborted a lap after running too deep into the Turn 10 hairpin, as meanwhile Leclerc moves up to third ahead of Russell's Williams - which set a 1m34.768s on softs.
Replays show Leclerc lost the car as he exited Turn 2 and was already heading backwards towards the Turn 3 right-hander. Fortunately though, unlike Raikkonen yesterday, he stops well short of the gravel and the tyre barriers.
Meanwhile Hamilton takes top spot on the soft tyre, it's a 1m32.933s for the reigning champion, a fair way off what the drivers were doing last night in the cooler FP2 conditions.
Yellow flag
The yellow flags make a brief appearance as Leclerc has a spin at Turn 3, but the Ferrari driver has now gotten going again.
Stopwatch
Sainz uses the hard to post the first representative time of the session, a 1m33.931s, which is 1.3s faster than Alonso's first effort on the mediums.
Bottas has seen enough and pits. Meanwhile, the Ferraris are on the hard compound, clearly testing how it degrades in hot temperatures as a potential option for the race tomorrow.
Bottas's first gambit is a 1m33.37s, but it's immediately chalked off for track limits at Turn 4 - which he fell foul of on four consecutive laps in yesterday's FP2 session.
Now Bottas and Alonso are joined on-track by the Ferraris, who showed encouraging form yesterday that Leclerc admitted he was surprised by. Can it break free of the midfield and challenge the top two? It's probably a stretch.
Bottas continues around to start another lap, so at least we have a time on the board. Somehow, I reckon Theo Pourchaire could push his broken F2 machine around the track quicker than his 2m17.890s though...
Bottas's first flyer is aborted as he runs deep into Turn 1. Still no times on the board yet as we have completed almost a quarter of the session.
The next man out is Alonso in the Alpine. Is he already pondering why he bothered coming back? The former Renault team looked somewhat at sea yesterday, but today is another day and all that.
Bottas, it should be mentioned, has form to uphold. He's won the opening race of the year for the past two seasons - in Australia 2019 and Austria last year. Mercifully, he does indeed begin a flying lap on soft compound rubber.
Will he actually go on to complete a flying lap? The tension is... palpable.
At last, we have a car on track and it's Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes.
Earlier on, the F2 race was somewhat more interesting as rookie Liam Lawson held off fellow Red Bull junior Jehan Daruvala to win the first of three races this weekend. Elsewhere Dan Ticktum was penalised for contact with Richard Verschoor, and poleman Theo Pourchaire was slowed by a mechanical problem. Full report here from F2 correspondent Tom Howard: https://www.autosport.com/formula2/news/lawson-fends-off-daruvala-for-maiden-f2-win-in-bahrain/5936011/
Still precious little happening on track. We wonder how often the grass on the entry to Turn 1 gets watered?
There's plenty of talk at the moment about how the new-for-2021 tyres are also compromising Mercedes, but Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola was clear in saying that it would be "stupid" for the company not to introduce it's more robust rubber for this season.
More on that here: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/pirelli-would-have-been-stupid-not-to-use-more-robust-2021-tyre/5935801/
More on that here: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/pirelli-would-have-been-stupid-not-to-use-more-robust-2021-tyre/5935801/
By: James Newbold, Megan White, Haydn Cobb
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