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Formula 1
Bahrain March Testing
F1 Bahrain pre-season test - Day 3
Minute by minute updates on the final day of the 2022 Bahrain F1 pre-season test
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Track action gets underway at 7am GMT and finishes at 4pm GMT. The day will be split by a one-hour lunch break (11am-12pm GMT) which can be reduced if requested due to lost track time from either red flags or poor weather conditions.
Haas has been granted extra time to catch up on the missed four hours of track running on Thursday, following a late arrival of its freight to the circuit. The US team was permitted an extra hour of track time after the chequered flag on Friday and will be permitted to run an extra hour this morning plus have two hours of further running this evening.
New signing Kevin Magnussen, replacing Nikita Mazepin, following the termination of his contract, made good use of this extra testing time by posting Friday’s fastest time courtesy of a 1m33.207s effort set on C4 tyre in cooler conditions.
AlphaTauri set the pace on Thursday while Ferrari led the way open Friday before Magnussen’s late show.
McLaren will head into the final day again without Daniel Ricciardo, who had been absent from the test due to feeling unwell before testing positive for Covid-19 on Friday night. Lando Norris will pilot the MCL36 in the Australian’s absence.
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Summary
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Leaderboard
- Verstappen, Red Bull, 1m31.720, C5, 53 laps
- Schumacher, Haas, 1m32.241s, C4, 85*
- Leclerc, Ferrari, 1m32.415, C4, 51
- Alonso, Alpine, 1m32.698s, C4, 122
- Russell, Mercedes, 1m32.759s, C5, 71
- Bottas, Alfa Romeo, 1m32.985s, C3, 68
- Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, 1m33.002s, C5, 57
- Perez, Red Bull, 1m33.105s, C4, 43
- Norris, McLaren, 1m33.191s, C2, 90
- Vettel, Aston Martin, 1m33.821s, C4, 81
- Zhou, Alfa Romeo, 1m33.959s, C4, 82
- Gasly, AlphaTauri, 1m34.865s, C4, 91
- Sainz, Ferrari, 1m34.905s, C5, 68
- Albon, Williams, 1m35.171s, C3, 18
- Latifi, Williams, 1m35.634s, C3, 124
- Stroll, Aston Martin, 1m36.029s, C3, 53
- Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m36.217s, C5, 78
- Magnussen, Haas, 1m38.616s, C2, 38
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Summary
- After a spin, Verstappen tops final day of testing with late effort on C5 soft tyres, beating Leclerc's earlier effort on the slightly harder C4 compound
- Russell beaten to fourth on C5 by Alonso's Alpine on C4 tyres amid difficult test for Mercedes; team-mate Hamilton believes it is currently not in contention for wins
- Alfa Romeo completes most laps but finishes test early with mechanical problem for Bottas in final hour
- Perez tops morning session for Red Bull running C4 tyres, with updated sidepods on the RB18
- Ricciardo misses entire test as COVID diagnosis rules him out at McLaren, Norris completes running solo
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Checkered flag
We'll be back next week for opening practice for the Bahrain GP which starts at 12pm GMT on Friday 18th March. Until then, stay safe and go well!
From the entire Autosport live text commentary team it is a big thank you for following with us across both the Bahrain and Barcelona tests, we'll wrap things up by wishing you all a wonderful evening.
So that's your lot, Schumacher ending the Haas extra running with second place overall thanks to his 1m32.241s, half a second back on Verstappen's overall top time.
Checkered flag
The timing screen clock counts down to zero and the red flag is shown - now 2022 F1 pre-season testing really is over.
Now 82 laps in the books today for Schumacher - his last lap though was a high 1m40s, so Haas likely to be looking at long runs as the team's programme comes to a close.
Schumacher has ventured out on track again, we'll update you with his progress.
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A Haas tweet says Schumacher's time came on the C4 tyres. He has now returned to the pits.
The timing screens say that Schumacher has now stopped in the first sector.
Of course, his times aren't truly representative relative to the rest of the field that haven't had a chance to lap in the same conditions. As one observer put it yesterday, Haas is fastest in a session of one. But still, valuable mileage for the team, regardless of the times.
Now 71 laps on the board for Schumacher, who clocks a 1m32.241s that is the second-quickest of the day.
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Schumacher heads out again now. He's only done 11 laps since the rest packed up their tools for the day - will now be the time he makes an impression?
Meanwhile, several of the drivers have been speaking after the conclusion of official test running. A chipper Max Verstappen says Red Bull is not at "full beans" yet, which could be ominous for the rest of the field after his table-topping effort today. Here's the full story: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/verstappen-still-not-at-full-beans-despite-topping-f1-test/8933673/
We've not posted much about Haas of late. That's because Schumacher has spent the majority of his time during this extra running in the garage.
Although that near-seven tenths gap to Red Bull looks big, Ferrari can also be quietly pleased. Leclerc's best lap was on the C4, relative to the C5 used by Red Bull, and was set earlier in the day. How much are those two factors worth? We'll have to wait until next week to find out.
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Who will be happiest with their day? There's a good case for saying that will be Red Bull given Verstappen's standout laps at the end of the day, which put him alone in the 1m31s bracket. But another with good reason to be pleased will be Alpine, given Alonso managed 122 laps today (second only to Latifi's 124) and ended up third on a C4 tyre that in theory should be slower than the C5 used by Mercedes.
Here's the full report from the final day of F1 2022 pre-season testing, if you missed any of the action: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/2022-bahrain-f1-test-day-3/8932186/
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Schumacher has completed a couple of outlaps but not done any considerable running and is back in the garage now for Haas.
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We'll be bringing you updates with all the reaction from testing, and whether Schumacher lights up the timing screens over the next couple of hours.
Schumacher has now headed out of the pits on hard tyres to start the Haas team's additional two hours of running.
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Herta will drive a 2021 McLaren MCL35M car at some point this year, as permitted by the FIA’s sporting regulations. It's the latest collaboration between McLaren and Herta's Andretti Autosport team, which previously saw Fernando Alonso race for the latter at the Indianapolis 500 back in 2017.
Breaking news
Meanwhile, in other testing-related news, McLaren has announced that IndyCar starlet Colton Herta will conduct F1 testing with the team this year. We'll bring you the full story on that shortly.
Checkered flag
Day 3 Formula 1 test times
Here's your top 10 then after the final day of pre-season testing:
1. Verstappen, Red Bull, 1m31.720, C5
2. Leclerc, Ferrari, 1m32.415, C4
3. Alonso, Alpine, 1m32.698s, C4
4. Russell, Mercedes, 1m32.759s, C5
5. Bottas, Alfa Romeo, 1m32.985s, C3
6. Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, 1m33.002s, C5
7. Perez, Red Bull, 1m33.105s, C4
8. Schumacher, Haas, 1m33.151s, C3
9. Norris, McLaren, 1m33.191s, C2
10. Vettel, Aston Martin, 1m33.821s, C4
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Of course there is still another two hours of track running for Haas this evening as it makes up for the time it lost to the freight delay on Thursday. We could see the team go quicker than the fastest times set so far again, as happened last night, but there would of course be an enormous asterisk next to that given the track tends to get faster as conditions cool later in the evening.
Max Verstappen's 1m31.720s is the fastest time from the official testing over the three days and will have Red Bull feeling pretty pleased. He ends up 0.695s faster than Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who also set his best time on softs but earlier in the evening, with George Russell third for Mercedes.
Red flag
And as the clock ticks down, that's it for official testing. We have a red flag instead of a checkered flag though, which somehow feels a bit odd.
Alpine has turned up the wick. Alonso pops up in third with a 1m32.698 on soft tyres, while Norris also improves - but only to ninth on the medium with a 1m33.191s.
Just five minutes left of pre-season testing in 2022. After that statement of intent from Red Bull, will anybody respond?
We were getting excited a little while ago about the prospect of a Williams push lap on soft tyres, but that never materialised - the team electing not to show its hand and has now sent Latifi back out on hard tyres again.
For reference, that 1m31.720s lap compares with a pole time of 1m28.997s from last year - also set by Verstappen.
A big cheer goes up inside the Red Bull garage - and no wonder. We don't know exactly what fuel Red Bull is running, but it's comfortably the quickest of the test so far, with Verstappen the only man who has ducked under the 1m32s barrier.
Verstappen improves again, lowering his benchmark time to a 1m31.720s.
Here comes Verstappen then - he's on another set of soft tyres and goes two tenths quicker with a personal best first sector.
Norris then has the favour repaid to him by Russell, ironically in the same portion of track. Norris tries to pass around the outside of Turn 8 but Russell holds him off before letting him go on the approach to Turn 10 - just enough to scupper the McLaren man's lap.
By: autosport.com
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