Charles Leclerc kept Ferrari on top of the timesheet on the third and final day of F1 pre-season testing with Mercedes’ George Russell second and Max Verstappen fourth-quickest ahead of next week’s season-opening Bahrain GP.
After team-mate Carlos Sainz had topped Thursday’s running, Leclerc took timesheet honours on Friday with a best lap of 1:30.22 mid-way through the afternoon on the C5 tyres, the fastest compound available this week.
The morning session of the test was again disrupted for the second successive day by a dislodged drain cover with running red-flagged for over an hour before cars were allowed to return to track.
Sainz’s Day Two time on 1:29.921, on one-step-harder C4s, remained the quickest of the test. Red Bull though recorded the week’s fastest time on the yellow-marked C3s, the soft tyre in use at next week’s race.
The widely-held belief therefore remains that Red Bull, the reigning double world champions remain the team to beat at the start of the new season after an impressive opening week for their eye-catching new RB20 car.
But Ferrari also enjoyed a strong test too, with their drivers feeling more confident about their car and its handling than this time last year. Mercedes’ drivers have also spoken about their car being “nicer to drive” than its two evil-handling predecessors, while McLaren feel they remain right in the chasing pack.
Verstappen, who like Leclerc ran in the afternoon, only used he C3 tyre or harder and his best time of 1:30.755 was fourth tenths slower than Leclerc’s on the quicker compound, although tyre-corrected the lap was theoretically quicker.
“That time on an old C3 tyre really was a real warning shot for what they can do in race pace,” said Sky Sports F1’s Anthony Davidson. “So I think they have got that covered.
“But Ferrari I’m quite interested in with the qualifying speed of the car. I think the potential could be there for qualifying to maybe be a thorn in Red Bull’s side.”
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Lewis Hamilton discusses his reasoning for moving to Ferrari and his relationship with team principal Frederic Vasseur
Russell, who along with team-mate Lewis Hamilton has described this year’s much-changed Mercedes as a “nicer car to drive”, completed a series of shorter runs late in the session in the local evening conditions. Initially moving into fifth place on the C3 compound, Russell then took second on the C4 late on, 0.046s adrift of Leclerc.
Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu vaulted up the order to third on the same red-marked compound.
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda was another to complete a late qualifying-style run on the C4s and finished fifth after 53 laps.
Alex Albon, the only driver to spend the whole day in the car while the other nine teams split their running, also found late ground to take sixth at the end of 121 laps ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
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Lewis Hamilton discusses his reasoning for moving to Ferrari and his relationship with team principal Frederic Vasseur
Sainz was the quickest of the morning runners with Lewis Hamilton, who spoke publicly in the press conference for the first time about his shock 2025 switch to Ferrari, was 12th after 49 laps.
Lando Norris only completed 20 laps due to a clutch problem on his McLaren.
More to follow…
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