monegask charles leclerc (Ferrari) dominated the duo’s first session, scheduled for the third and final day of pre-season testing at the Sakhir circuit, which will host a training session next week’s first race of the Formula 1 World Cup, the Bahrain Grand Prix. The session in which Alfa Romeo experienced its first serious setback.
The temperature on the asphalt of the Bahrain circuit exceeded 40 degrees and set the best time of the session (1:31,024) on his second lap on the C4 tire (outside the range that the drivers would have at the World Cup opening). ) and the weekend is more than half a second (1:31,610) better than the Chinese guanyu zhou (Alfa Romeo) Friday with experimental compound (C5).
English George Russell (Mercedes) finished second in the session’s timeline, 4 tenths behind Ferrari, which will be driven by the Spanish driver in the afternoon. Carlos Sainz.
Brazilian-Italian finishes the podium from Aston Martin Philip Drugovic (1:32.075), to be replaced by the Spanish Fernando Alonso evening
The Mexican also added mileage Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez (Red Bull) finished fourth (1:32.459) and had a total of 69 laps. The man from Guadalajara will repeat in the afternoon as Dutch Max Verstappen will be resting this Saturday.
French Pierre Gasly (Alpine), German Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), Thai Alex Albon (Williams), Australia Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Dutch nyck cycles (Alpha Tauri) and Finnish Valteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) finished the morning.
the day started with one Red flag There was another one on the track in the first minutes for a track and an hour and twenty before it was due. After 72 laps completed, Bottas’ Alfa Romeo suffered an engine failure that forced him to interrupt practice after it went out of control at Turn 8.
The session resumed after a quarter of an hour and alpha romeo They placed a human barrier so that the work done in the single-person vehicle would not be seen.
It was the first reliability issue Alfa Romeo had in pre-season testing. Mclaren With cracks in the front wheel wings that Piastri needs to strengthen and condition his fit.
Nyck de Vries, who had the most rolls on the track (87 laps, 4 more than Russell), made a comeback that didn’t stop him from continuing the action in the penultimate practice a week after the cars showed their true performance. , because there are many variables that determine times in tests. refuelingthe selected tires and the configuration of the cars.
They tested in the last minutes of the session different race situations like a virtual security tool.