Verstappen closes the Bahrain test flying and Alonso with hope

This Saturday afternoon the Bahrain 2022 F1 tests ended and, with them, the preseason before the new course, which will begin next week at the same Sakhir circuit.

And after Pérez led the morning session in the revamped Red Bull RB18, Verstappen took the fastest time of the day and the test thanks to a 1m31.720s he achieved with less than 10 minutes remaining on the supersoft C5 tyre .

It must be insisted that the champion mark was with the fastest Pirelli compound, but time was left in the second sector and his record could have been even higher.

Leclerc , with C4 tires (soft) did not allow direct comparison, since in the last stages he chose medium for his Ferrari, and settled for second place 0.695 behind Verstappen when the test ended.

Who did improve at the end, with C4 tires, was an Alonso who took a step forward with the Alpine, staying in third position (0.978 behind the leader) and with more than 120 laps. He managed to finish ahead of Russell , fourth in the Mercedes and more than a second behind Verstappen, also in the C5. The German team completed 149 laps between its new driver and a Hamilton who finished penultimate, 17th.

However, after the checkered flag, Mick Schumacher was able to play two more hours for Haas to make up for lost time on Thursday morning, and in that extra time the German achieved a time that would leave him second and send Leclerc to third. place and Alonso to fourth.

Checo Pérez ‘s time in the morning allowed him to be seventh (eighth at the end), and the Mexican saw how he was also surpassed by Bottas (sixth and author of a red flag due to mechanical failure in his Alfa Romeo) and Tsunoda with the AlphaTauri.

The next thing will be ‘real fire’, with the Bahrain GP that opens the season.

Times, positions and results of the 2022 F1 test in Bahrain – Day 3

	Pilot	Equipment	laps	Time (tyres)
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	53	1’31″720
2	Mick Schumacher	Haas	85	1’32″241
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	51	1’32″415
4	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	122	1’32″698
5	George Russell	Mercedes	71	1’32″759
6	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	68	1’32″985
7	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	57 57	1’33 “002
8	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	43	1’33″105
9	Lando Norris	McLaren	90	1’33″191
10	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	81	1’33″821
11	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	82	1’33″959
12	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	91	1’34 “865
13	Carlos Sainz	ferrari	68	1’34″905
14	Alex Albon	williams	18	1’35″171
15	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	124	1’35″634
16	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	53	1’36″029
17	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	78	1’36″217
18	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	38	1’38 “616

Track officials remove Valtteri Bottas’ car, Alfa Romeo C42

1 / 9

Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images

Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo C42, stops on the track

2 / 9

Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75

3/9 _

Photo by: LAT Images

Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo C42

4 / 9

Foto de: LAT Images

Sergio Pérez, Red Bull Racing RB18

5/9 _

Photo by: LAT Images

Sergio Pérez, Red Bull Racing RB18

6/9 _

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull Racing RB18 steering wheel

7 / 9

Photo by: LAT Images

Side detail of the Red Bull Racing RB18

8 / 9

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Detail of the front spoiler of the Mercedes W13

9 / 9

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

This was Saturday afternoon at the 2022 F1 test in Bahrain – Summary of Day 3

Bottas and Russell were the first to go out on track when the green light came on again, although the afternoon session started calmly, with the drivers accumulating mileage and without changes in the time table beyond the entry of those who were not in the morning.

After several drills and tests of the Virtual Safety Car system during these days, we saw a real one, when a piece of Albon’s car was left on the asphalt, about to complete the first half hour of the afternoon, and forced a marshal to enter the track to remove it.

After spending the first hour in the pits watching Alpine try to put the finishing touches on the A522, Alonso took to the track on C3 tires 35 minutes after the restart. For his part, Vettel, who was the representative driver of Aston Martin, gave a lap minutes later that put him third.

Just when the first hour was up, Albon put the Williams eighth, and the world champion, Verstappen, appeared on the asphalt with the renewed Red Bull. The Dutchman first placed sixth, and in the next stint he moved up to third place, although still 1.3 behind his teammate Pérez.

From that moment things began to liven up. Vettel stole third place from Verstappen for a moment, but the #1, with medium C3 tires, set a record for the first two sectors to, with a 1:32.645, pulverize all the times and take the lead.

A quarter of an hour later, Mercedes fitted the soft tire to Russell’s car, giving us hope of seeing some real performance from the team defending the constructors’ title. However, the Briton’s lap, without knowing fuel loads, was 1.5 shy of Verstappen’s mark, in sixth position.

As they did in the Barcelona test, Williams again made a driver change during the session, with Latifi taking over from Albon. For his part, Alonso, after six hours of the day, returned to the box and got out of the car, with 94 laps to his credit.

With an imperfect but very fast lap, Leclerc managed to get second among the Red Bulls, 0.420 behind Verstappen and just 40 thousandths ahead of Pérez. Immediately afterwards, Mick Schumacher marked a spin at the entrance to the main straight when he was going to start a lap. His brakes and tires left a lot of smoke, which made F1 rush to raise a red flag, however it was soon seen that it was not necessary.

The resumption lasted very little, and soon everyone returned to the charge. Charles Leclerc, on soft tyres, demonstrated the great pace of the Ferrari by setting a lap record, with a 1:32.415 that put him first and 0.230s ahead of Verstappen.

For his part, Alonso set a personal best to sit sixth, just ahead of Russell, and Leclerc failed to improve his own record. With one hour and 18 minutes left on the clock, the Mercedes, on a new set of soft tyres, improved its time to take third, 0.473 behind Leclerc and 0.243 behind Verstappen.

The table was changing and a series of improvements lowered Alonso to ninth place and Sainz (who did not ride in the afternoon) to eleventh. Tsunoda managed to move up to fourth place, and Russell improved his time but remained third.

In the Alfa Romeo, Bottas surprised to take fourth on the medium C3 tire with 42 minutes remaining, but moments later he was stopped after a mechanical problem, probably related to the gearbox. And despite the fact that the Finn moved away from the track, the stewards could not remove his car, so the second red flag of the afternoon appeared.

Less than a quarter of an hour later, with 27 to go, the green flag once again flew, and six of the nine teams still in contention took to the field. The desire to make one last attack was quickly seen, and Verstappen suffered a striking spin when he was about to start his fastest lap, although the Dutchman was able to make a 360º to continue.

Alonso, with C3, lowered his time and was ninth, and Verstappen, with supersofts (C5, the fastest) and despite not making a perfect first sector, managed to improve six tenths and get first with a 1:31.973.

With nine minutes remaining, and improving his first and third sectors, he managed to drop to 1:31.720, which ended up being the total record. It remained to be seen if anyone was going to beat it, but Ferrari decided not to fit the C3 tyre. The one who did improve was Alonso, who finished third with C4 tires.