Russell pips Verstappen: Everything to know as F1 testing ends

George Russell topped the afternoon session and the final day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain with a late lap to jump Max Verstappen, while Alex Albon's Williams also challenged.

In what was an usual session, which included a bus appearing on track, few teams ended up doing the same type of running at the same time.

Late performance runs

Both Verstappen and Albon delivered final-hour performance runs, with Albon on the C4 tyre usurping Verstappen's earlier best, seemingly rivalling his team-mate Carlos Sainz's session-topping one-lap pace from Thursday evening.

But a final push from Verstappen - on a harder C3 compound compared to Albon - established the Red Bull at the top of the order.

It was quicker lap even lacking a personal best middle sector, and that attempt was followed by Verstappen almost driving into the McLaren pitbox, which is now the first in pitlane after it won last year's constructors' title.

Verstappen also went for a big spin at Turn 1 inside the final 25 minutes not long after Esteban Ocon had done the same thing - the only really notable incidents in the session.

With just under seven minutes to go, Russell followed up long runs of 23 and then 13 laps on the harder C2 tyre by heading out on another set of medium C3s and went on to beat Verstappen by 0.021s, with a 1m29.545s overall that was a quarter of a second off Sainz's best time of the test a day earlier.

Albon in third was in for the full day and comfortably managed the most laps of any driver with 136 to add to what looks like a positive test for Williams, at least in terms of its single-lap pace.

Oscar Piastri spent almost the whole day on long runs but went out for a late performance effort that was still 0.395s adrift of Verstappen, although it came with a moment through Turn 2 which contributed to a disappointing first sector which was followed up by a session-best middle sector.

TV coverage also noted he made a mistake on a later lap, too, but it was unsighted.

Piastri's long runs

Piastri managed a 21-lap long run for McLaren on the C2 tyre, which was slower than Norris's headline long-range effort the previous day but that also came in cooler temperatures with calmer winds, too.

The runs were comparable initially but Piastri's stint tailed off massively later on, which could be explained by the higher temperatures.

The long run did include a semi-entertaining dice - as far as testing goes anyway - with Ocon, passing the new Haas driver into Turn 1 and then holding off his DRS-boosted counter-attack into the Turn 4 right-hander.

Impressive Gasly

It's hard to compare laptimes when you don't know fuel loads and run plans, but Pierre Gasly and Alpine were strong on the leaderboard on Friday.

Gasly was fourth overall, having been among Verstappen and Russell in the early part of the afternoon session for the best time on the C3 tyre to that point.

What was Hamilton up to?

Lewis Hamilton was sixth after a truncated afternoon which started with plenty of short runs, none of which could keep him in the top three, while later in the day he did not complete a full long run, notching a longest stint of 12 laps.

He noted in the lunchtime press conference that he hadn't done a proper long run since his Ferrari switch and that will carry through to FP1 in Melbourne in a fortnight. He only managed 47 laps in total on Friday, fewer than most of his rivals, and spent the last hour in the pits.

Elsewhere in the top 10

Yuki Tsunoda and Ocon delivered late runs to jump to seventh and eighth respectively, meaning the day's eight fastest times were all set in the afternoon session.

Racing Bulls driver Tsunoda was 0.953s adrift and Haas's Ocon 1.183s off Russell, but both managed two stints over 18 laps on the hard tyre as both teams were seemingly more focused on longer running.

Bus on track and illness in the pits

The four-hour evening session was red flagged not long after it started for a bus that drove into the run-off area at Turn 10, completing a hat-trick of bizarre incidents alongside a power cut on day one and smashed glass falling from a panel on the start gantry on Friday morning.

Elsewhere, Lance Stroll returned from the illness that ruled him out of the morning session he was supposed to drive in to get 34 laps of running in the afternoon and set the 13th-best time.

But Stroll was reported unwell again and handed the car back to Fernando Alonso for the last hour and 17 minutes. Alons ended the day 16th, committed to longer hard tyre running late on.

Day three times

1 Russell (Mercedes) 1m29.545s
2 Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.021s
3 Albon (Williams) +0.105s
4 Piastri (McLaren) +0.395s
5 Gasly (Alpine) +0.495s
6 Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.800s
7 Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) +0.952s
8 Ocon (Haas) +1.183s
9 Leclerc (Ferrari) +1.266s
10 Antonelli (Mercedes) +1.343s
11 Norris (McLaren) +1.398s
12 Doohan (Alpine) +1.694s
13 Stroll (Aston Martin) +2.1544s
14 Hulkenberg (Sauber) +2.181s
15 Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +2.216s
16 Alonso (Aston Martin) +2.539s
17 Bortoleto (Sauber) +2.602s
18 Bearman (Haas) +2.816s