While Mercedes and McLaren appeared to be in good form at the Middle East race, the 22nd and final of this year’s Formula 1 championship, the leading Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was seven tenths behind in fifth place, with Max Verstappen half a behind Centimeters behind 6.

In the early years Sergio Perez was initially in the lead in the other Red Bull RB19, but Russell was soon in the lead with a time of 1:25.163. With two more attempts on the soft rubber, the young Englishman reduced his time twice to a final time of 1:24.418, which kept him in the lead until the end.

Norris appeared to be quicker than Russell on his final fast lap, but a slip by the McLaren at Turn 16 ended up costing him time and leaving him in second place.

Between Norris and Leclerc were Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren MCL60 and Alex Albon in the Williams FW45 – which was the fastest of all in the first two sections of the route, but lost time in the third.

Ferrari ended up only putting on one set of soft rubber as both the Scuderia and other teams tried to make up for the data lost in the second session yesterday due to the crashes of Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg.

However, they collected them in different weather conditions than the qualifying tests and the race, which is held at dusk and then under floodlights. It is therefore possible that the data there will change again.

Max Verstappen also reported issues with the RB19’s rear grip and the car’s general slipperiness early in the process – issues that the champion will need to sort out ahead of qualifying testing, with the added disadvantage of lower asphalt temperatures.

With Perez, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso out of the top ten, Carlos Sainz was closing in on the times after rebuilding his Ferri SF-23 following his serious accident yesterday. The Spaniard’s total of 29 laps – more than anyone else – showed that he was collecting more data than absolute time.