Sainz dominates final practice in Bahrain, leading Alonso and Verstappen
In a thrilling final practice session at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz emerged as the fastest driver, posting an impressive lap time to outpace both Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen.
The session kicked off at 15:30 local time, but strategists chose to bide their time, keeping several drivers in the garages at the outset. This one-hour session served as the last preparatory run before Friday's crucial qualifying rounds.
Lewis Hamilton, who had been the frontrunner in Thursday's second practice session, was the first to brave the gusty yet warm conditions, opting for soft tyres on his W15 as he ventured onto the Bahrain International Circuit.
Subsequently, the track witnessed a flurry of activity, with most drivers following Hamilton’s lead and fitting soft tyres. However, the Red Bull pairing of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez chose to deviate by running hard compounds instead.
Fernando Alonso initially set the benchmark with a lap clocked at 1m 31.582s. But as drivers transitioned to new softs for their subsequent stints, the times began to tumble. Eventually, it was Sainz who clinched the fastest lap of the session with 1m 30.824s, narrowly beating Alonso by a tenth of a second.
Max Verstappen trailed in third, followed by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who encountered a slight hiccup during his fast lap, securing fourth position. McLaren's Lando Norris landed in fifth, with teammate Oscar Piastri taking seventh spot. Sandwiched between the McLaren drivers was George Russell of Mercedes, who finished in sixth.
Read next ❯ Ferrari to reveal Hamilton's debut F1 car on February 19 at MaranelloPerez managed to secure the eighth position, while Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll completed the top ten. Daniel Ricciardo, the fastest in FP1 on Thursday, found himself in 11th place, with Lewis Hamilton eventually settling for 12th.
Yuki Tsunoda and Kevin Magnussen finished 13th and 14th respectively, while Alex Albon led Williams in 15th position. The Kick Sauber team saw Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas finish in 16th and 17th respectively.
Alpine faced a challenging session as Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly concluded in 18th and 20th, with Logan Sargeant's intervention at 19th place separating the Alpine drivers.
As the teams shift focus to data analysis, the anticipation for an intensely competitive qualifying session is palpable.
