F1 Bahrain Preseason Test Day 3: ‘Glory runs’ see Leclerc top Russell

by Mark Cipolloni

The C4 and C5 soft and super soft Pirelli tires that will not be used here in Bahrain and are meant for street circuits allow teams to do ‘Glory Runs’ in preseason F1 testing to top the timesheets.

Charles Leclerc slapped a set of C4 soft Pirelli tires on his Ferrari and made a low fuel run of 1m31.024s to turn the fastest lap so for in his #16 Ferrari.

George Russell slapped on a set of C5 super soft Pirellis to go 2nd quick with a lap of 1m31.442s in his #63 Mercedes. The Super Soft Pirellis do appear to have fixed the Mercedes handling problems from the first two days, but again they will not be available for race weekend.

Felipe Drugovich was 3rd quick for Aston Martin at 1m32.075s, also on the C5 supersofts.

Sergio Perez was 4th on the C3 rubber that will be used next weekend. His best time was 1m32.459s while Pierre Gasly rounded out the top-5 for Alpine on the C3 rubber.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas causing a red flag as he ground to a halt with suspected gearbox problems.

It was the second red flag of the session after Red Bull’s Perez lost a sensor in the opening minutes of the session and stopped on track.

Much heralded Australian rookie Oscar Piastri in the McLaren ran out of talent and lost control in Turn 10 and spun off. Piastri then spent a lengthy spell in the garage changing his Depends.

Next up is the final session of preseason testing – the cooler Glory Run session.

Bahrain Day 3 AM Times