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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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Verstappen lines up a DRS pass into Turn 1 on Latifi, and the Williams man doesn't put up too much of a fight. Verstappen has been circulating for a while now on medium tyres, while Red Bull and Ferrari have seemingly been targeting performance runs on softs.
Latifi meanwhile becomes the latest visitor into the Turn 10 run-off. If there was a congestion charge-style fine for using that strip of tarmac, there would probably be enough money raised over the past three days for a modest family car by now.
Meanwhile Tsunoda also improves for AlphaTauri, moving up to fifth on soft tyres. It's a 1m33.429s for the Japanese sophomore.
That's a bit more like what we'd expect from a Mercedes, as Russell goes third fastest on those softs. It's a 1m32.888s from the Briton, still four tenths off Leclerc's Ferrari on the same tyre compound though.
There's almost contact going into the Turn 11 left-hander at the end of the back straight. Russell lines up a move on Tsunoda but doesn't really commit, and Tsunoda elects to stay ahead - forcing Russell to back off before starting his next lap on another set of softs.
Latifi is back in the Williams after Albon got a few laps in after the lunch break. The Canadian lost a lot of time yesterday to that brake fire, but has put in a handy 88 laps so far today.
A short while ago, Bottas moved off the bottom of the timesheets with a lap that put him 17th fastest. That means Magnussen now brings up the rear - after the Haas driver ended yesterday with the quickest time of all courtesy of running alone when the track conditions were at their coolest. Swings and roundabouts, etc etc.
Vettel was being tracked by Verstappen around his last lap, but the reigning world champion elected to back off on the run towards the final corner to give himself room. He's currently running in another set of the medium tyres.
Russell recently set a new PB on soft tyres, but it was only good enough for the Mercedes to go sixth-fastest and immediately beaten by Alonso on the hard tyres - the double world champion having now racked up 104 laps so far today. Could Hamilton be right in predicting that Mercedes won't be in contention for wins at the start of the season?
We've had a recent flurry of quick times, with Leclerc using the soft tyres to go quickest on a 1m32.415s. That puts him just over two tenths up on Verstappen, whose previous benchmark time was set on mediums.
We've just over 90 minutes to go in official F1 pre-season testing - well, for everyone except Haas that is. Newbold here taking over for the final stint. I will try not to come as close to running over the flagman at the end as WRT at Le Mans last year...
Here is the full story on Piastri being offered as a potential reserve driver option for McLaren.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/piastri-joins-pool-of-mclaren-f1-reserves-for-2022-season/8930177/
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/piastri-joins-pool-of-mclaren-f1-reserves-for-2022-season/8930177/
While the cars get back up to speed again, here is the latest from Lewis Hamilton on Mercedes' challenging pre-season test.
“Obviously it's a little bit too early to have those kind of thoughts. But at the moment, I don't think we'll be competing for wins," he said, when asked about the team's current situation.
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“Obviously it's a little bit too early to have those kind of thoughts. But at the moment, I don't think we'll be competing for wins," he said, when asked about the team's current situation.
Full Story
Green flag
Session is back underway after that brief stoppage caused by Schumacher.
Schumacher's car is wheeled back into the garage.
Schumacher has spun out of the final corner. He avoids the barriers and trundles back to the pits.
Red flag
Red flag.
Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer has confirmed that Alpine will have priority over Piastri's services should there be any conflict of interest.
However, McLaren is confident Ricciardo will be deemed fit and well to race in next weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.
As has just been announced, McLaren will have access to Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri should it be needed. Daniel Ricciardo tested positive for Covid-19 last night and has missed the entire test due to feeling unwell. Prior to this announcement, McLaren had access to Mercedes reserve drivers Nyck De Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne, plus Paul di Resta. But both Vandoorne and di Resta have commitments in sportscars at Sebring next weekend.
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Norris is also back on track with C3 mediums bolted to the McLaren.
Bottas is the latest to go for a practice start on the pit exit.
Verstappen is out of the car and talking to engineers while his Red Bull team work on the car.
Just, Schumacher, Tsunoda, Latifi and Alonso on track at the minute.
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Schumacher sets a new personal best but stays in P14 in the Haas. Mick has logged 35 laps.
Verstappen has returned back to the pits. The team bolt softs on but then wheels him back into the garage. He has 17 laps in the books this afternoon.
Tsunoda does however improve his time as the AlphaTauri driver sits P9 with a 1m34940s.
Leclerc improves in sectors 1 and 2 but stays P5 after a slower third sector.
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Vettel moves to P3 now in the Aston Martin. The four-time champion has closed to within 1.1s of Verstappen's time. The lap was set on the C4 softs.
Red Bull has placed some flow vis paint on Verstappen's front wing end plates as it continues its learnings with the new car.
Alonso has had a brief off-track excursion at Turn 11.
Russell brings the Mercedes back into the pits and conducts a practice start using the pit exit.
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Russell also improves to put Mercedes sixth using the C4 soft rubber. The Brit is however 1.5s behind Verstappen's benchmark that was set on the mediums.
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Leclerc jumps up to P5 now in the Ferrari. He had been sitting outside of the top 10 before firing in a 1m34.059s on the C3 mediums.
Vettel has a small lock up at Turn 8. The Aston Martin driver manages to keep the car on the track.
Verstappen has returned to the pits after that blistering run. Will be interesting to see if anyone else can dip into the 1m32s bracket this afternoon.
Russell, also on the C3 mediums, was unable to improve upon his P7 on that last lap.
Verstappen is joined on track by Russell's Mercedes and the Alfa Romeo driven by Bottas.
Verstappen's effort is also 0.4s faster than the morning benchmark set by teammate Perez.
By: autosport.com
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