- Sergio Perez goes fastest on the C4 tyre with a 1min 30.305sec lap
- Red flag as Valtteri Bottas stops his Alfa Romeo on track
- More soft tyre runs as the end of testing approaches
- Oscar Piastri recovers from a spin but McLaren then back in pits for strengthening work
- See below for the full driver schedule
16:30pm – Day 3 final classifications
Pre-season testing for the 2023 F1 season has officially come to an end, with Red Bull and Sergio Perez topping the time sheets ahead of a season in which it will try to continue the dominance found in 2022.
Mercedes recovered from a limited day of testing on Friday afternoon as a result of a hydraulic issue; Lewis Hamilton helping the team to bounce back to second in the standings, followed closely by former team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Alfa Romeo.
Ferrari team-mates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were separated by just 0.012sec, but were still way off the pace of their title rivals. When questioned, both Leclerc and team principal Fred Vasseur remained reserved about the team’s performance, admitting there is work to be done.
Alpine has been the surprise under-achiever over the three days of testing, suffering from porpoising during its final stints. Similarly, McLaren continued to struggle with reliability, forcing Lando Norris to spend the majority of his pre-season testing in a garage, completing only 37 laps on the final day – 99 less than Williams’ Alex Albon.
Final times on Day 3 of F1 2023 pre-season testing
| Driver |
Team |
Lap time |
Gap |
Laps |
| Sergio Perez |
Red Bull |
1min 30.505sec |
|
133 |
| Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
1min 30.664sec |
+0.359sec |
65 |
| Valtteri Bottas |
Alfa Romeo |
1min 30.827sec |
+0.522sec |
131 |
| Charles Leclerc |
Ferrari |
1min 31.024sec |
+0.719sec |
67 |
| Carlos Sainz |
Ferrari |
1min 31.036sec |
+0.731sec |
76 |
| Yuki Tsunoda |
AlphaTauri |
1min 31.261sec |
+0.956sec |
79 |
| Kevin Magnussen |
Haas |
1min 31.381sec |
+1.076sec |
95 |
| George Russell |
Mercedes |
1min 31.442sec |
+1.137sec |
83 |
| Fernando Alonso |
Aston Martin |
1min 31.450sec |
+1.145sec |
80 |
| Felipe Drugovich |
Aston Martin |
1min 32.075sec |
+1.770sec |
77 |
| Lando Norris |
McLaren |
1min 32.160sec |
+1.855sec |
37 |
| Pierre Gasly |
Alpine |
1min 32.762sec |
+2.457sec |
56 |
| Alex Albon |
Williams |
1min 32.793sec |
+2.488sec |
136 |
| Esteban Ocon |
Alpine |
1min 33.267sec |
+2.952sec |
76 |
| Nico Hulkenberg |
Haas |
1min 33.329sec |
+3.024sec |
77 |
| Oscar Piastri |
McLaren |
1min 33.655sec |
+3.350sec |
44 |
| Nyck De Vries |
AlphaTauri |
1min 38.244 |
+7.939sec |
87 |
3.30pm – One hour of testing remains
As the sun begins to set on another year of pre-season testing, performance runs are becoming more frequent, with Sergio Perez and Red Bull topping the timesheets on the C4 tyre, followed by Hamilton on the C5.
The most changes to the running order can be expected in the next hour.
3pm – Hamilton goes fastest
Lewis Hamilton has set the fastest time of testing so far on the C5 tyre, going two-tenths faster than Charles Leclerc on the C4 and six tenths faster on teammate George Russell on the C5.
2pm – Ferrari 1-2
Carlos Sainz joined his team-mate at the top of the timesheet on the C4 tyre, going second fastest as the sun begins to set on testing in Bahrain. A tenth separates the Ferrari pair, followed by George Russell on the C5 tyre.
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have struggled to find pace on the final day, with the seven time world champion having to manage a difficult W14, which has traded porpoising for understeer.
McLaren and Aston Martin have spent the vast majority of its afternoon troubleshooting issues that have limited on-track time, with Lando Norris only completing 13 laps so far.
11.20am – Leclerc ends the morning fastest
Charles Leclerc remains fastest after the morning session, with just the afternoon running to come before the end of testing and the countdown to next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
As the evening approaches later today, we’re expecting to see the fastest times, so Leclerc’s 1min 31,024sec mark, set on soft C4 tyres is likely to be overhauled.
The Ferrari driver completed 67 laps this morning, 20 short of Nyck de Vries, whose AlphaTauri managed 87 tours. Valtteri Bottas managed 72 laps despite coming to a halt before the end — much more than Oscar Piastri who was stuck in the pits for some time as the team strengthened the winglets over the car’s front wheels. It has been a pre-season to forget for the Papaya team.
Fastest laps from the day 3 morning test session
| Driver |
Team |
Lap time |
Gap |
Laps |
| Charles Leclerc |
Ferrari |
1min 31.024sec |
|
67 |
| George Russell |
Mercedes |
1min 31.442sec |
+0.418sec |
83 |
| Felipe Drugovich |
Aston Martin |
1min 32.075sec |
+1.051sec |
77 |
| Sergio Perez |
Red Bull |
1min 32.459sec |
+1.435sec |
69 |
| Pierre Gasly |
Alpine |
1min 32.762sec |
+1.738sec |
56 |
| Alex Albon |
Williams |
1min 32.793sec |
+1.769sec |
53 |
| Nico Hülkenberg |
Haas |
1min 33.329sec |
+2.305sec |
77 |
| Oscar Piastri |
McLaren |
1min 33.655sec |
+2.631sec |
44 |
| Valtteri Bottas |
Alfa Romeo |
1min 36.854sec |
+5.830sec |
72 |
| Nyck de Vries |
AlphaTauri |
1min 38.244sec |
+7.220sec |
87 |
10am – Bottas breakdown
It’s a red flag for the session as Valtteri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo comes to a halt at Turn 8. The stoppage appears to be gearbox related and there’s no way the Finn is driving it back to the pits. Bottas removes his moustachioed helmet and hitches a lift but there’s a delay while the car is recovered.
In the meantime, work continues in the McLaren pit where the team has had to strengthen the winglet that arch over the front wheels — a minor issue that will be resolved by next weekend, says McLaren.
With just over an hour left of the morning session, Charles Leclerc heads the timesheet with a 1min 31.024sec lap, set on the softest-but-one C4 compound, 0.4sec ahead of George Russell whop was on the softest C5. Felipe Drugovich maintains Aston Martin’s position among the fastest cars in testing with the third-quickest time on C5 tyres, just under a second off Leclerc.
8.15am – Russell fastest so far
George Russell is starting to stretch the legs of the Mercedes after missing out on the end of yesterday’s session. With the softest C5 tyres fitted, he’s currently quickest with a 1min 31.564 lap that’s the fastest of the test so far.
Most of the others are still running medium-compound C3 tyres: Charles Leclerc is fastest of those runners, 0.656sec slower than the Mercedes, followed by Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez.
There’s still no smooth running for McLaren, where Oscar Piastri has already had a spin.
7am – Day 3 of testing begins
The final day of Formula 1 testing has begun, with the hope that teams will start turning up the power, reducing the fuel load and fitting soft compound tyres to give an indication of where the competitive order lies.
There have been few moments of drama so far in the Bahrain test, with most teams forging on with their programmes and piling on the laps.
Aston Martin lost a short amount of time on Thursday with an early electrical fault, while yesterday saw Mercedes miss out on the final 90 minutes of the afternoon session when George Russell ground to a halt with a hydraulic issue.
There have been few other reliability issues, but not all teams are upbeat. McLaren in particular appears pessimistic, with talk of missed targets and too much drag.
We may have a better idea of where it lies in comparison to rivals at the end of the day: stay tuned to see what we learn from the timesheet.
