Charles Leclerc of Ferrari dominated the opening phase of the final day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. The session served as a warm-up for next week’s Bahrain Grand Prix, the opening race of the Formula 1 World Championship, and marked Alfa Romeo’s first sizable setback of the test. The track temperature exceeded 40 degrees Celsius, and Leclerc posted the fastest time of the session, 1:31.024 on his second run on a C4 compound tyre, a pace that hinted at the performance window teams expect to encounter in the season opener. By late in the day the lap average appeared to be more than half a second quicker than Zhou Guanyu of Alfa Romeo, who had set a 1:31.610 on Friday using an experimental C5 tyre.
George Russell, representing Mercedes, finished the session second, about four tenths behind Leclerc’s Ferrari. The afternoon session would feature Carlos Sainz behind the wheel for the Scuderia as the team prepared for the next phase of testing. The afternoon lineup also included Carlos Sainz driving for Ferrari while Leclerc was reportedly preparing for a late-day run.
From Aston Martin, Philippe Drugovich secured third place with a lap time of 1:32.075, with Fernando Alonso expected to take the car later in the evening. Sergio Perez, the Mexican driver for Red Bull, completed the top five with a 1:32.459 after logging 69 laps. Perez’s day was followed by Max Verstappen, who would rest on Saturday as part of the plan to balance the workload across the Dutch driver’s schedule.
Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) finished the session among the leaders, while Alex Albon (Williams), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri), and Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) also took part in the morning running. The day began with a red flag and a separate earlier pause for track conditions. After Bottas completed 72 laps, Alfa Romeo reported an engine issue that forced a halt to practice when the power unit failed at Turn 8.
The session resumed after a brief delay, and Alfa Romeo arranged a temporary barrier to obscure some of the ongoing work on a single-seat test car. This marked Alfa Romeo’s first reliability hiccup in pre-season testing. McLaren engineers addressed concerns about the front wing mounting on Piastri’s car to ensure fit and reliability as the young driver acclimates to the car’s balance.
Nyck de Vries, who logged the most laps on the day with 87, added distance—four more laps than Russell—before the session concluded. De Vries’ return to track action came as teams continued to evaluate setups and tire strategies, acknowledging that times in testing hinge on multiple variables, including fuel load, tyre choice, and configuration. In the closing minutes, teams explored different race scenarios, including simulated safety-car procedures, to gauge how cars would respond under race conditions.
The final moments of the session saw the drivers practice varied race simulations, leveraging virtual safety tools and tire selections to gather data ahead of the next phase of testing. The Bahrain track offered the perfect environment for teams to push limits and compare engineering solutions across the top teams, all while gathering insights that will shape decisions for the season-opening weekend.