Charles Leclerc led George Russell at the halfway point of the final day of Formula 1’s sole 2023 pre-season test in Bahrain as McLaren and Alfa Romeo hit trouble.
The hot daytime conditions didn’t deter Mercedes and Ferrari from performing soft tyre runs in the first couple of hours of day three of the test.
Leclerc ended up fastest on a 1m31.024s on the C4 tyres, a time that was within half a second of his 2022 pole position time on the C3s set in cooler night-time conditions.
Russell was 0.418s slower than Leclerc and he used the softer C5 tyres for his fastest lap.
The top three was completed by Aston Martin’s reserve driver Felipe Drugovich, who still might make his F1 debut next weekend in place of the injured Lance Stroll.
Drugovich was 1.051s adrift of Leclerc in third place ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who set his fastest lap on the C3 tyres.
Perez’s RB19 was the cause of the first red flag of the day as an aero sensor dropped off the car and needed to be cleared by the marshals.
Perez will be driving the Red Bull throughout Saturday as reigning two-time F1 champion Max Verstappen completed his running yesterday evening.
Pierre Gasly was fifth for Alpine ahead of fellow ex-Red Bull driver Alex Albon in the Williams.
Nico Hulkenberg was seventh quickest for a Haas team that its reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi thinks sits between “fifth and seventh” in the pecking order this year.
McLaren’s troubled test continued with Oscar Piastri suffering from similar brake cooling issues to those experienced by Lando Norris on the opening day.
Piastri’s MCL60 spent a lengthy amount of time in the garage with his McLaren mechanics attending to his brakes.
This limited his running to 44 laps and he was eighth on the timesheet, 2.631s adrift of pacesetter Leclerc.
Valtteri Bottas had to stop his new Alfa Romeo at Turn 8 with just over an hour of running remaining and caused the second genuine red flag of the day (outside of the FIA’s test procedures).
Bottas had logged 72 laps prior to that stoppage and didn’t run thereafter. He’ll remain in the car for the final half of the day as will Albon and Perez.
Nyck de Vries propped up the timesheet in 10th place with the AlphaTauri driver’s primary focus on long runs. The 2023 rookie clocked more laps than any other driver with 87.
Day three morning test times
1. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m31.024s, C4, 67 laps
2. Russell (Mercedes) 1m31.442s, C5, 83 laps
3. Drugovich (Aston Martin) 1m32.075s, C5, 77 laps
4. Perez (Red Bull) 1m32.459s, C3, 69 laps
5. Gasly (Alpine) 1m32.762s, C3, 56 laps
6. Albon (Williams) 1m32.793s, C4, 53 laps
7. Hulkenberg (Haas) 1m33.329s, C3, 77 laps
8. Piastri (McLaren) 1m33.655s, C3, 44 laps
9. Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 1m36.854s, C3, 72 laps
10. De Vries (AlphaTauri) 1m38.244s, C3, 87 laps
