Verstappen outpaces Leclerc to stay on top in final practice
Verstappen continued Red Bull’s fine start to the opening weekend of F1’s new era and appears the favourite for the first pole position of the 2022 season heading into qualifying later on Saturday evening.
- LIVE UPDATES: F1 Bahrain Grand Prix - Qualifying
- FIA report finds ‘human error’ led to Abu Dhabi title controversy
- F1 Bahrain GP: Full results from final practice
But if the final sixty minute practice session was anything to go by, Ferrari looks to be Red Bull’s closest rivals for pole, with Verstappen’s 1m32.544s ending up just 0.096s clear of Leclerc, who got away with a high-speed off at Turn 11 when he lost control of his car.
Verstappen’s best time came following cool down lap after aborting his first effort when he suffered a big lock up into Turn 1, while Leclerc’s set his fastest lap straight out of the box.
Sergio Perez put his Red Bull inside the top three, just 0.247s down on teammate Verstappen, while there was a much more positive showing from Mercedes after its pace struggles on Friday.
George Russell got within four-tenths of Verstappen’s session-leading benchmark, with Carlos Sainz splitting the two Mercedes ahead of Lewis Hamilton in sixth.
The seven-time world champion was the first driver out of the lead group to complete his qualifying simulation run in FP3 and ended up 0.577s adrift, however, Mercedes calculated he lost around a tenth-and-a-half due to a scruffy entry at Turn 10 on his quickest lap.
Kevin Magnussen continued to showcase promising performance for Haas, with the returning Dane setting a lap good enough for seventh and within nine tenths of the pace.
Alfa Romeo duo Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the rest of the top 10.
Yuki Tsunoda failed to emerge from the garage after the AlphaTauri driver reported a an apparent steering issue as he attempted to leave the pits early in the session.
Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix takes place at 6pm local time (3pm GMT).
Full results from final practice for the 2022 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
