Lando Norris second fastest; Max Verstappen third
Aston Martin completed just six laps after problems
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took the bragging rights with the quickest time at the final Formula One pre-season test before the season proper begins in Australia in just two weeks, while Aston Martin endured a horror show.
At the end of the final day of the third test some of the cars were let off the leash to put in some runs on soft tyres with lower fuel loads and Leclerc looked very much at home as he hurled his Ferrari around the circuit in Bahrain. He set a time of 1min 31.992sec, eight-tenths clear of the second-placed McLaren of Lando Norris and a second up on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’s George Russell.
Nonetheless Russell and Mercedes will head to the first round in Australia with no little confidence, having been consistently quick across all three tests and Russell remains the early favourite. He felt there was more to come but remained wary of the threat from Red Bull, McLaren and in particular the blistering pace Ferrari have demonstrated in practice starts.
