Ferstappen faster on the final day of testing in Bahrain

Driving the Red Bull RB18, Max Ferstappen set the fastest time of the three days in Bahrain ahead of the 2022 winter testing curtain. The Dutchman set his fastest lap with the softest of all erasers (C5), followed by Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso in 7 tenths and 1 second with Ferrari F1-75 and Alpine A522 respectively – but the Monegasque Spaniard also did a bit of his fastest lap with the harder – and slightly slower – C4 rubber.

The first Mercedes with George Russell completed its fourth year, 61mm behind Alonso and 1,039” behind Ferstappen – although the Brit also had his best time with the C5. Lewis Hamilton confined himself to data collection and other priorities, ending the day in the unusual penultimate place, 4.5 seconds back.

Although Sergio Perez had promised that RBR would run classification test simulations today, and also despite the different erasers that might lead to some conclusions, one cannot be sure how the present tenses will be translated – mainly because no one knows the fuel loads of each car had in his fastest lap.

Indicative or not at all indicative of the importance of today is that Ferstappen marked (apart from the first and) the second year of his entire three days in Bahrain with used tires, which were particularly worn after a quarter of a year -a- ke his on the last lap . This happened on the Dutchman’s exit lap from the pits, apparently because his four erasers weren’t warm enough yet.

“No one is in full classification test specification yet”, declared the champion. “Obviously the car is better with less fuel, and with more it’s usually a bit lazy and doesn’t do much. But that goes for everyone. I think the new parts we brought today worked well and hope for that you always.” .

I think we learned a lot about the car and were able to make it faster. And I think that’s what you want. Our main concern was the tires we will be using in the first few races. The car feels good and we followed the program that we set out to do and that’s always positive I think.closed Max

Leclerc also tried to set a fast lap on the softer C5 eraser, but despite being quicker in the middle of the track, something went wrong in the third part of the track – or he might have chosen to slow down – and so on . remained the fastest lap he had driven with C4. He then ended the day with rounds of the hardest C3 eraser.

The Mercedes W13, meanwhile, has revealed its stability issues to the naked eye. After the big problems of Hamilton’s uncontrollable turn yesterday, the “Silver Arrow” was twitchy in Russell’s hands today, sometimes hyper-rotating and with serious problems of rebound (“porpoise”) even in fast corners other than straight lines.

Notable, apart from Alpine’s relatively unexpected third year with Alonso, was Valteri Botas’ 5th appearance with Alfa Romeo – how the Finn managed with the average C3 eraser. Not all was rosy for Hinville’s team, however, as shortly afterwards the C42 had a problem with the transmission system and Botas had to defeat it on the exit of Turn 8.

Mick Schumacher from Haas was half a tenth faster today than yesterday’s fastest lap by Kevin Magnussen, who gave the Dane an unexpected lead. The German (although he has a foursome analogue of Ferstappen) thus found himself in 8th place, which is a very encouraging result for the American team, which finished the tests even ahead of McLaren and Aston Martin, Lando Norris and Sebastian Vettel or.