Morning session
On a traction-limited track, Perez showed off his Pirelli preservation prowess in the morning, getting the most from his rear tyres.
After enduring a difficult first two days with a stop on track for the Charles Leclerc and a spin yesterday for team-mate Carlos Sainz, Sunday was much more assured for the Ferrari. The Monegasque came in second with 1min 30.486sec.
Lando Norris rounded out the top 3, completing his final half-day before handing over to McLaren stablemate Daniel Ricciardo with a 1min 30.661sec.
Perez fitted the C4 tyres before the end of the morning running, putting up a 1min 30.1sec to put Red Bull top of the times heading into the final afternoon of running as all teams got decent mileage in.
Afternoon session
While the sun was out, long runs were the focus but as the track temperatures fell and the sun set, teams started to peel back the curtain on their pace.
Mercedes emerged from the lunch break an hour behind the rest again, losing further vital track time though no apparent issue kept Lewis Hamilton in the garage.
Vettel was another driver stuck in the garage again with problems. Though the team had been working on the car, screens went up with over an hour left of testing. It’s the second day in a row his running has been impacted.
Carlos Sainz’s running was impacted with just over an hour to go. The Spaniard suffered a hydraulic issue that left him stuck in fourth gear and only able to reemerge with half an hour to go.
Räikkönen was the busiest man on the final day, racking up plenty of mileage for Alfa Romeo. A run on the C5 tyres briefly put him top before Yuki Tsunoda began to turn it up. The two traded fastest lap until the Dutchman fitted the C4 tyres to get into the 1min 28s for the first time.
Verstappen had been fastest until the Japanese rookie put in a 1min 26.671sec to pip the Red Bull in front.
Hamilton’s first lap on C5s ended up being 0.7sec down on Tsunoda and behind Verstappen’s C3 time. A second run on a fresh set was ruined before it started, with a spin entering the lap at the final corner on cold tyres. His best time ended up over a second off of the Red Bull time despite the tyre compound differential.
F1 testing day 3 – morning session
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | Laps | Tyres |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1min 28.960sec | 63 | C4 |
| 2 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1min 29.053sec | 89 | C5 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1min 29.611sec | 77 | C4 |
| 4 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo | 1min 29.766sec | 163 | C5 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1min 30.025sec | 54 | C5 |
| 6 | George Russell | Williams | 1min 30.117sec | 156 | C5 |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1min 30.144sec | 74 | C4 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1min 30.187sec | 49 | C4 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1min 30.318sec | 75 | C4 |
| 10 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1min 30.486sec | 80 | C3 |
| 11 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1min 30.661sec | 56 | C3 |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1min 30.828sec | 76 | C4 |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1min 31.310sec | 61 | C3 |
| 14 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 1min 31.531sec | 66 | C4 |
| 15 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1min 32.053sec | 78 | C3 |
| 16 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1min 32.406sec | 86 | C2 |
| 17 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1min 35.041 | 56 | C3 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1min 36.100sec | 80 | C3 |
2021 testing driver schedule: Sunday
Teams are running a single car, with most splitting the first day between team-mates. However, some drivers will spend full day in the car, including Williams test driver George Russell.
Below is the schedule for Sunday.
| Team | Morning session | Afternoon session |
| Mercedes | Valtteri Bottas | Lewis Hamilton |
| Red Bull | Sergio Perez | Max Verstappen |
| McLaren | Lando Norris | Daniel Ricciardo |
| Aston Martin | Lance Stroll | Sebastian Vettel |
| Alpine | Esteban Ocon | Fernando Alonso |
| Ferrari | Charles Leclerc | Carlos Sainz |
| AlphaTauri | Pierre Gasly | Yuki Tsunoda |
| Alfa Romeo | Kimi Räikkönen | Kimi Räikkönen |
| Haas | Mick Schumacher | Nikita Mazepin |
| Williams | George Russell | George Russell |
What time does testing start?
Sunday testing starts at 10am Bahrain time, 7am GMT, which is the same each day this weekend. It’s split into two sessions: the morning session runs for four hours until 2pm, 11am GMT.
After a break, the afternoon session starts at 3pm, 12pm GMT, which lasts for a further four hours.
Bahrain time zone
Local time in Bahrain is three hours ahead of GMT, so sessions start mid-morning local time and the testing day runs into the evening, ending at 7pm