F1: Alonso nips Verstappen in final Bahrain GP practice

by Mark Cipolloni

Aston Martin ace Fernando Alonso beat Max Verstappen by just 0.005s to lead final practice for the Bahrain GP on Saturday.

Alonso’s time of 1m32.340s still in the heat of the day will not be as fast as we will see in qualifying in 2 hours when the sun goes down.

Sergio Perez was third quick in the 2nd Red Bull Honda, 0.106s back.

However, it was the blazing time Max Verstappen set on the hard tires that got everyone’s attention on pit road.  It indicates Red Bull may make this a one-stop race given their speed in race setup conditions and their ability to keep the tires under them on all three tire compounds.

Lewis Hamilton ended up 4th quick for Mercedes, 0.215s behind, and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top-5 for Ferrari, 0.284s behind.

American rookie Logan Sargeant is doing well so far, matching or beating his experienced teammate, Alex Albon, every session in identical equipment.  Sargeant is quickly proving he belongs in F1. We shall see how he does in his first-ever F1 qualifying up next.

Is that finally an accurate pecking order? The conditions will change over the next couple of hours, with the sun due to set before qualifying kicks off. The track will cool, the wind often picks up into the evening… And the scene will be set for an epic qualifying showdown.

Practice 3 Results