Vettel with a poor qualifying dress rehearsal – Schumacher convinced

The final training at the Formula 1 season opener in Bahrain was almost a model of no value – but at least brought worrying information for Sebastian Vettel.

As on Friday, the 33-year-old couldn’t get up to speed with his new Aston Martin car, as 14th he was more than two seconds behind front runner Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver won each of the three training sessions and goes into qualifying as the favorite.

The Dutchman was more than seven tenths of a second ahead of world champion Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes, who finished second – such a long gap in the battle for pole is hard to imagine. However, the Mercedes drivers struggled again with the set-up of their cars, as oversteer could be observed in the corners, as on the previous day. Team mate Valtteri Bottas finished fourth behind Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri.

Again, debutant Mick Schumacher presented himself convincingly in the defeated Haas racing car. As on Friday, he left not only his team mate Nikita Masepin behind in 18th place, but also Nicholas Latifi in the actually stronger Williams.

Cause for concern for Vettel

What all this means for the rest of the weekend remains to be seen: The conditions on Saturday afternoon cannot be compared with those for qualifying and the race. The temperatures were 37 degrees, in the evening it cools down significantly, and a drop in temperature is expected on Sunday.

For Vettel there is still cause for concern. His car seemed too slow compared to the competition, both on the fast laps and in the racing simulation. In addition, a defect cost time and nerves. “Something came loose in the front left and hit my helmet,” he radioed to the command post about halfway through training and headed for the pit.

Even the test drives two weeks ago in Bahrain did not go well for the ambitious Aston Martin team. In his first qualifying for the British, Vettel has to worry about making it into Q3 of the top ten.

Formula 1: 3rd free practice at the Bahrain GP for reading in the live ticker

Qualifying from 4 p.m.

We are saying goodbye to Formula 1 in Bahrain for the moment. Qualifying will continue in a few hours. We are curious to see whether Max Verstappen will be able to assert himself there again.

Colorful field

Max Verstappen is clearly ahead and will go into qualifying as a big favorite. Behind that, a lot is open and there is a mixed field. Eight different teams have placed at least one driver in the top ten. Sebastian Vettel, who missed the top ten in 14th place, still has room for improvement. Tsunoda was also clearly behind his team-mate today. McLaren will also have hoped for more. After being at the front yesterday, it didn’t work out today. Let’s see if they can still do something for qualifying. Mick Schumacher’s 18th place jumped out, with which he had his teammate under control again.

End of 3rd training

All drivers have finished their last lap and nothing is happening in the back field either. Bottas comes in behind Gasly. Pérez is fifth ahead of Sainz, Räikkönen, Ocon and Stroll. Ricciardo completes the top ten in a McLaren.

Max Verstappen wins the 3rd practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix

The time has run out and Max Verstappen’s sovereign leadership remains. The Red Bull driver had a 1: 30.577 on the soft tire and was 0.7 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Pierre Gasly, who lands on the three, can be satisfied with his performance.

McLaren weaker today

Yesterday the McLaren were really strong, today it doesn’t quite work out for the British team. Daniel Ricciardo is only in tenth place, Lando Norris is only 16.

Vettel sits down on the 13th

Sebastian Vettel is through with the first fast lap. With a 1: 32.755 he is only in 13th position and will certainly not be completely satisfied. The team-mate was able to take ninth place.

New best lap from Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen will probably be the one to beat today. The Dutchman beats the absolute best time in all sectors on his fast lap and finally takes the best time with 1: 30.577 minutes and 0.7 seconds. Gasly, who is in third place, had also improved enormously.

Vettel back on the track

Sebastian Vettel is now back out of the box. He had driven ten laps on the hardest tire compound. Now he’s on the softest tire.

Schumacher on the eleven

Mick Schumacher took eleventh position on the list of results after his first round with the softs. With that he clearly left Mazepin behind. He is 15.

Verstappen now with Soft

Max Verstappen is already back on the track and now wants to reach for the best time with the soft. Team-mate Pérez has already done the first fast lap and is currently third.

Vettel in the box

Sebastian Vettel is currently in the box. So far, the Heppenheimer has only driven the medium. Mick Schumacher is just coming out on a fresh set of the softs.

New best lap from Lewis Hamilton

There is now a lot of movement at the top of the results list. First Carlos Sainz sits down on number one. Shortly afterwards, however, he is out of the fastest time again. Now Lewis Hamilton is leading with a 1: 31.216 ahead of team-mate Bottas, who was half a second slower.

Softs at Mercedes and McLaren

Mercedes and McLaren are now back on the track. Unlike Ferrari, they each rely on soft tires.

New best lap from Pierre Gasly

There is a new leader in the 3rd training. Pierre Gasly had a 1: 32.321 on his used softs. It goes past Verstappen by 0.3 seconds.

Ferrari now on medium

Ferrari doesn’t want to know anything about the soft tire yet. After Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were previously on the road with the Hard, now they are on the road with the medium.

It’s getting quieter

It is now getting quieter on the track and many drivers are back in the pits to prepare for the qualifying simulation. Verstappen is still in the lead ahead of Gasly. This is followed by Hamilton, Norris and Pérez. Mick Schumacher is in 14th place. Vettel is penultimate ahead of Bottas, who had to cancel many laps because of exceeding the track limits in Turn 4.

Yellow flag

Mazepin is responsible for the next yellow flags in this training session. The Haas youngster spun in Turn 7 after losing his rear end.

Gasly new runner-up

Pierre Gasly has meanwhile steered his AlphaTauri to second position. It is only 0.1 seconds that he is missing. The Verstappen won’t make you sweat, after all, he drives the hardest tire compound, while Gasly drove the softest compound.

Schumacher jumps forward

Mick Schumacher made a big leap in the list of results and is now in twelfth place with a 1: 35.221. The Haas rookie drove his lap on the hardest tire.

Pit radio Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso tells his team over the radio that he is currently struggling primarily with the brakes locking on the front axle. He is currently 13.

New best lap from Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen shows that he is still the favorite today. With the hardest tire compound, the Dutchman set the new best time with a 1: 32.617. He had taken from Hamilton 0.3 seconds. Third is Norris, followed by Giovinazzi.

Norris breaks off lap

Lando Norris is the next driver to abandon his fast lap. He had gotten too far in the hairpin. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel is also through with a round. With more than two seconds, the gap to the front is decent for the Heppenheimer.

Only Alfa Romeo still in the box

The Alfa Romeo have not yet taken to the track at the moment. All other drivers have already done at least one installation lap.

New best lap from Lewis Hamilton

In the meantime, Lewis Hamilton has taken the lead. With a lead of 0.9 seconds, however, Mercedes will not be satisfied. Because Sainz had put his time on the hard tire. Mick Schumacher has also set his first timed lap in the meantime. At the moment, however, he is still far behind the top.

Yellow flag

Charles Leclerc, for his part, is responsible for the yellow flags. The Ferrari driver had lost his car in turn three and turned away. He has to drive through the gravel bed to continue his journey.

New best lap from Carlos Sainz

So it is Carlos Sainz who sets the first lap time in this session. He needed 1: 33.931 minutes for his lap. He is 1.3 seconds faster than Fernando Alonso, who is also through with the first timed lap.

Lap time deleted

It is important to watch out for the track boundaries again. Valtteri Bottas just felt that. He drove a 1: 33.37, which was canceled shortly afterwards.

More and more on the line

Slowly the stretchers begin to fill up and more and more pilots begin their third training. The Ferrari drove out, Lewis Hamilton shows himself and Mick Schumacher also steers his Haas out of the pit lane.

Bottas gets company

The next rider is Fernando Alonso from Alpine. Valtteri Bottas, for his part, went on the second lap, but had to cancel it after a trip into the run-off zone in turn one.

Bottas drives out

Valtteri Bottas ensures that a car drives onto the track again after a few minutes’ break. Mercedes still had problems yesterday and the drivers were not satisfied with the vehicle inspection. Let’s see how things go today with the Silver Arrows. Like Tsunoda, he’s on the softest mix.

There is little to learn

In Bahrain today, the fact that there is simply very little to learn in the third practice session is made more difficult, as the conditions today in qualifying and tomorrow in the race will be completely different. Accordingly, it doesn’t do much good for the teams to do a lot of laps and unnecessarily burden the material. Nobody is driving at the moment.

It’s easy to start

As usual, it starts off quietly and nobody is in any great hurry to complete many laps here straight away. So far only Tsunoda has been out and only for one lap.

Tsunoda makes the start

Yuki Tsunoda, the rookie in the AlphaTauri, starts today. The youngster from Japan is on the move on the soft tire.

Vettel in midfield

Sebastian Vettel also has to get used to the first few weekends and get used to his new work vehicle at Aston Martin. Mainly because he lost a lot of test time during the test two weeks ago due to technical problems. Everything went smoothly in the practice sessions on Friday and he was able to complete a few laps. In the first training session he was slightly faster than teammate Stroll and ended up in twelfth place. In the second session, 14th place jumped out.

That’s how day one went for Schumacher

At the start of the Formula 1 year, the fans of the German fans are certainly mainly focused on newcomer Mick Schumacher. That he would be able to penetrate the front was not to be expected due to the weakness of the Haas and in the end places 19 and 18 jumped out. It was positive that he had team-mate Nikita Mazepin under control. Yuki Tsunoda, a rookie at AlphaTauri and thus in the better car, reached the top ten in afternoon practice.

Räikkönen crashes signals Alfa Romeo

For the first impact of the new season on Friday, veteran Kimi Raikkonen, of all people, provided. Raikkonen had lost the rear of his company car in turn two and rushed into the barrier. He was able to return his car to the pits afterwards, but the session was over after only six laps and important training time fizzled out.

Verstappen sovereign on Friday

The first day of the start of the new season should have been to Max Verstappen’s taste. The Red Bull driver was one step ahead in both sessions and will be the clear favorite on Saturday. At Mercedes, however, there are indications that not everything will fit together yet. Because not only Verstappen put pressure, but also Lando Norris in the McLaren. He was third behind Bottas in the first practice session and even passed both McLaren in the afternoon. Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari also made a lasting impression with fourth place in the second session.

Before start:

The new Formula 1 season kicked off yesterday in Bahrain. Incidentally, Mick Schumacher was also in a free practice session in the cockpit of a Formula 1 car for the first time. The German prevailed against his Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin in both training sessions. Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was twice fastest. From 1 p.m. onwards, the drivers will fight for the starting positions for tomorrow’s opening race (5 p.m.) in qualifying.

Before start:

It starts today at 1 p.m. on the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.

Before start:

Hello and welcome to the 3rd free practice session at the Formula 1 opener in Bahrain.

Formula 1: 3rd free practice at the Bahrain GP today on TV and livestream

Sky has the exclusive rights for Formula 1 this year and is therefore showing the 3rd free practice today live and in full on the new Sky Sport F1 channel. In addition, the pay TV broadcaster will later show qualifying and tomorrow the race. All sessions are also available on the Sky live stream. If you want to access this, you need either a SkyGo subscription or a SkyTicket.

The Austrians can watch today’s training and then qualifying live on ServusTV.

Formula 1: an overview of the field of drivers