George Russell capped off the final day of Formula One pre-season testing in Bahrain with Mercedes on top, surpassing reigning world champion Max Verstappen in the closing minutes on Friday.
The British driver completed 91 laps and posted the fastest time of the day, clocking in at 1:29.545 around the floodlit Sakhir circuit.
While faster than Verstappen, Russell’s time was still behind the 1:29.348 set by Carlos Sainz of Williams on Thursday. Sainz’s teammate, Alex Albon, placed third on Friday, just 0.105 seconds slower than Russell after an impressive 137 laps.
Four-time world champion Verstappen completed a full day of testing and finished 0.021 seconds behind Russell’s time.
“There were a few little problems, but overall, we completed quite a bit of what we wanted to do. I think it wasn’t bad, but at the same time, there is still a bit of work to do,” said Verstappen.
Australian Oscar Piastri was fourth for champions McLaren, who have done a good job staying under the radar by showing flashes of speed but aborting laps that could have put them in the spotlight.
“We tried a lot of things and learned a lot. Some things felt quite good, others still need improvement, but working through this is exactly what testing is for,” said Piastri.
“The car ran pretty much faultlessly, which was a solid place to be starting from. We’ve got a lot to review before Melbourne, but I think we’re going into it in decent shape,” he added, referring to the season opener in Australia on March 16.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fastest in a four-hour morning session, bizarrely interrupted by a pane of glass falling out of the starter’s box and shattering on the track.
That was followed by another red flag in the afternoon when a bus appeared on the runoff area as some cars were on the track.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, now with Ferrari, was sixth overall for his new team, behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in fifth, after finishing earlier than planned with 47 laps.
“Overall, it’s been a great few days, and we’ve made some strong progress as a team,” said the Briton. “We’ve managed to gather a lot of good information to build on before the season starts.”
Mercedes’ 18-year-old Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli was second in the morning, 0.077 seconds slower than Leclerc’s best lap of 1:30.811, but dropped to 10th overall by the end.
“It’s hard to know what fuel loads everyone is running, as we’re all doing our own different programs, so you have to take everything with a pinch of salt,” said Hamilton of what he had seen so far.
“McLaren won the constructors’ last year. We expect them to be one of the quickest, if not the quickest, as with Red Bull, who dominated for many, many years.”
Aston Martin had a day of changes, with Lance Stroll initially reported unwell for the morning session and Fernando Alonso driving instead.
The Canadian returned for the afternoon but then felt unwell again after 34 laps, and Alonso stepped back in for the final hour.
“Initial feedback from Lance and Fernando suggests we have made progress with the drivability of the car, but we have also discovered areas that could be better and need more focus,” said team principal Mike Krack.
