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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

Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari F1-75, leads Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18

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's lap is fastest time seen across the three days thus far!!
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Verstappen responds to go fastest with an impressive 1m32.645s on the C3 medium.
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Vettel has eclipsed Verstappen's time to jump to P3 now with a 1m34.031s effort. The four-time champion is on the C3 mediums.
Norris has since brought his McLaren back to the pits. The Brit has completed 10 laps so far in this afternoon session.
Yuki Tsunoda has also quietly crept up the timing screen. The AlphaTauri driver sits in P10, having chalked up 12 laps so far.
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Leclerc continues his climb up the leaderboard. The Ferrari driver moves to P13 with a 1m35.697s.
The Mercedes is back on track with George Russell behind the wheel.
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Verstappen has climbed to P3 while Seidl was speaking. The Red Bull driver has fired in a 1m34.467s, 1.3s adrift of Perez, who continues to hold the fastest time.
McLaren boss Andreas Seidl says the real solution to the team's brake issues will come next week.
Norris was among the drivers in today's press conference. Here is what he had to say.


"Less than ideal. Although I have done two and half days it has not been the smoothest of tests. I think Barcelona was a good one but here we have encountered quite a few more problems that have limited the laps we have done by quite a huge amount.

"We are behind from where we want to be and need to be. It is not great but we are getting through as much as we can, we are definitely making progress, but it is definitely not the position we want to be in."

After a brief moment in the garage, Verstappen's Red Bull has emerged again. Can confirm Norris is out on track on the C4 softs.
Vettel has returned to the pits as Norris heads out in the McLaren.
Bottas struggles to get his Alfa Romeo to turned into Turn 8 but stays on track.
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Schumacher also sets a new personal best in the Haas but stays in P15. The Haas driver is 1.3s faster than teammate Magnussen. However, Schumacher is running on softer C3 rubber compared to the compound used by his new stablemate earlier today.
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Leclerc improves again on the hard tyre to move to P14.
Currently we have Vettel, Albon, Alonso, Schumacher, Leclerc and Bottas on track.
Verstappen has returned to the garage after another short stint.
Leclerc posts a quicker time in the Ferrari to climb from P18 to P16.  Leclerc has jumped in for the afternoon session after Sainz ended the morning in fourth.
Verstappen is back out on track on the hard tyres.
Vettel is currently sitting third with a 1m34.862s effort.
Vettel has a little lock up into Turn 1 and runs wide but no harm done.
Verstappen logged four laps in that short burst posting a best time of 1m34.953s on the hard C2 tyres.
Thanks Haydn and Jake, solid stint there. Just as we start our stint Verstappen ducks into the pits.
Right on cue there's Verstappen in the Red Bull for the first time this afternoon. That's the perfect time for us to hand over to Tom Howard and James Newbold for the final stint of the day. Go well!
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Russell, on C3s, moves up to seventh overall with a 1m35.361s as Albon, also on C3s, takes eighth overall with a 1m35.411s. Just half a tenth between Mercedes and Williams, subject to fuel loads of course.
Still no sign of Red Bull with an hour almost gone in the afternoon session. Verstappen is in the cockpit for the rest of the day, and will a few other updates to the car also be on show?
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Bottas emulates Vettel with the green mini sector times to post a 1m39.482s but he stays P14 overall.
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Vettel, on C3s, turns the timing screen green which means personal best mini sector times. It results in a 1m34.862s lap which sees him leap up to third place overall.
Alonso, the other all-day runner apart from Norris, heads out on C3s for the first time this afternoon in the Alpine.
Stopwatch
Albon has moved up to eighth place overall using those C4s to put in a 1m36.003s.
Norris is completing some constant speed tests, just as he was yesterday, with some aggressive corner turn-ins too. Still no long runs from McLaren which will put it on the backfoot now.
Albon is out on track again so no major issues for the team after losing whatever that part was which came off on his first lap.
Safety car
A Virtual Safety Car has been called to allow a marshal to dart across the track and pick up the piece that flew off Albon's Williams. All quickly sorted and the green flag conditions return.

Albon is also out on track and TV replays catch something fly off the rear-right section of his Williams. He only completes an installation lap and pits again.

Norris is also out for the first time this afternoon, running on some C4s in his McLaren. Everyone else remains on one of the hard tyre compounds in the heat of the day.

And now Schumacher is out in the Haas after the team fixes its earlier issues. Schumacher's afternoon will be two hours longer than the rest given the additional time Haas has been given after its freight delays.

By: autosport.com

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