> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.the-race.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # F1 testing latest: Soft-shod Verstappen back on top - URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-testing-latest-bahrain-day-three/ - Published: 2021-03-14T07:01:42.000Z - Updated: 2023-09-16T17:05:40.000Z - Description: Regular news and timing updates from the third and final day of 2021 Formula 1 pre-season testing at Sakhir in Bahrain - Author: Valentin Khorounzhiy - Tags: Formula 1, #video, #image-center-center **The latest from day three of 2021 pre-season Formula 1 testing in Bahrain. All times Sakhir local time.** **19:00** Max Verstappen ends testing on top ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton. [![](https://storage.googleapis.com/the-race-com.appspot.com/1/2021/03/XPB_1078035_HiRes-300x200.jpg)](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/verstappen-and-red-bull-end-f1-testing-on-top/) Verstappen and Red Bull end F1 testing on top [Read more](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/verstappen-and-red-bull-end-f1-testing-on-top/) That’s all for our live updates but [here’s our full afternoon report](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/verstappen-and-red-bull-end-f1-testing-on-top/) and the leaderboard is below. 1 Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m28.960s 2 Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m29.053s 3 Sainz (Ferrari) 1m29.611s 4 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m29.766s 5 Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m30.025s 6 Russell (Williams) 1m30.117s 7 Ricciardo (McLaren) 1m30.144s 8 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.187s 9 Alonso (Alpine) 1m30.318s 10 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 11 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 12 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 13 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 14 Mazepin (Haas) 1m31.531s 15 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 16 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 17 Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m35.041s 18 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s --- ### Earlier updates **18:35** It’s blow by blow here but – after Yuki Tsunoda took the fastest time, Max Verstappen bolted on the softs to net a 1m28.960s lap to go fastest. Lewis Hamilton has jumped into fourth on the C4 soft while Carlos Sainz got back out following an possible transmission issue. Don’t forget to read our full report on the hour for a rundown of the action. --- **18:15** Max Verstappen goes fastest again on the C3 medium tyre – despite going off the road at Turn 11 – but is immediately pegged back by Tsunoda who goes fastest by 0.062s on the C4 soft tyre. Lewis Hamilton has also improved, moving to seventh on the C4. 1 Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m29.671s 2 Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m29.733s 3 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m29.766s 4 Ricciardo (McLaren) 1m30.144s 5 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.187s 6 Alonso (Alpine) 1m30.318s 7 Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m30.391s 8 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 9 Russell (Williams) 1m30.600s 10 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 11 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 12 Sainz (Ferrari) 1m31.070s 13 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 14 Mazepin (Haas) 1m31.531s 15 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 16 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 17 Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m35.041s 18 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s --- **17:37** On his 141st lap of the day, Kimi Raikkonen has gone fastest for Alfa Romeo and Yuki Tsunoda beats Max Verstappen’s benchmark also, to go second. Both the new lap times came on the C4 tyre. Improvements may come thick and fast inside the last hour, and we’re certainly underway. Lewis Hamilton has jumped to eighth for Mercedes, 0.877s off the best. His time came on the C4 soft tyre. --- **18:00** A host of improvements have occurred as we reach the last hour of testing, including rookie Yuki Tsunoda jumping to second fastest on the C4 softer tyre for AlphaTauri. Fernando Alonso has jumped Kimi Raikkonen to go fifth on the C4, while Lewis Hamilton (C4) and Carlos Sainz (C2) are 10th and 11th. There’s plenty of cars on track making use of lovely cooler conditions to conclude the test. 1 Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m29.792s 2 Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m30.036s 3 Ricciardo (McLaren) 1m30.144s 4 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.187s 5 Alonso (Alpine) 1m30.318s 6 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m30.441s 7 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 8 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 9 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 10 Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m30.928s 11 Sainz (Ferrari) 1m31.070s 12 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 13 Mazepin (Haas) 1m31.531s 14 Russell (Williams) 1m31.718s 15 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 16 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 17 Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m35.041s 18 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s --- **17:37** Verstappen has improved again on the C3 tyre, improving the best time of the test so far to a 1m29.792s. Daniel Ricciardo has also recently improved to go second fastest being Sergio Perez’s benchmark from the morning session, but Verstappen’s improvement means Ricciardo is 0.352s slower. Kimi Raikkonen bolted on the C4 to jump to fourth overall while Fernando Alonso’s running on the C3 medium tyre has yielded the sixth fastest time. Further down the order Sebastian Vettel’s overtaken Carlos Sainz for 15th. 1 Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m29.792s 2 Ricciardo (McLaren) 1m30.144s 3 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.187s 4 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m30.441s 5 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 6 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 7 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 8 Alonso (Alpine) 1m31.212s 9 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 10 Mazepin (Haas) 1m31.531s 11 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 12 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 13 Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m32.566s 14 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 15 Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m35.041s 16 Sainz (Ferrari) 1m35.050s 17 Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m35.200s 18 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s --- **17:09** Max Verstappen has set the fastest time of F1 pre-season testing for Red Bull and is the first driver into the 1m29s with a 1m29.942. Despite a tiny moment at Turn 10 he beat his team-mate Sergio Perez by 0.245s to deliver a stonking time on the prototype C3 tyre. He set an even faster sector one on the next lap but couldn’t pull the lap together. Daniel Ricciardo is out on the C4 tyre after setting the third fastest time of the day less than an hour ago for McLaren. Lewis Hamilton is out on the same tyre Verstappen set the best time on but can only manage the 13th fastest time with a small improvement. 1 Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m29.942s 2 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.187s 3 Ricciardo (McLaren) 1m30.187s 4 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 5 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m30.637s 6 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 7 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 8 Alonso (Alpine) 1m31.212s 9 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 10 Mazepin (Haas) 1m31.531s 11 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 12 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 13 Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m32.566s 14 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 15 Sainz (Ferrari) 1m35.050s 16 Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m35.176s 17 Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m35.200s 18 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s --- **16:43** There’s really little change on track as teams take advantage of the warmer weather to get longer runs and various experiments out of the way before they should gear up for faster runs when things cool down later on. Of note, Kimi Raikkonen has now notched over two race distances, which isn’t unique in this test but is unusual given there are over two hours still left to go! Lewis Hamilton’s notched 15 laps after his slow start to the day while Sebastian Vettel has gone about his low key afternoon for Aston Martin well with 44 laps completed. Daniel Ricciardo is still the fastest man of the afternoon, but he’s jumped to third with a run on the C4 tyre. 1 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.187s 2 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 3 Ricciardo (McLaren) 1m30.587s 4 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 5 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 6 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m30.990s 7 Alonso (Alpine) 1m31.212s 8 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 9 Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m31.426s 10 Mazepin (Haas) 1m31.531s 11 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 12 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 13 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 14 Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m32.886s 15 Sainz (Ferrari) 1m35.050s 16 Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m35.176s 17 Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m35.200s 18 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s --- **16:07** After missing the first hour and five minutes or so, Lewis Hamilton is out on track for Mercedes. He’s on the medium tyre and looking to add to Valtteri Bottas’s morning lap count of 86. It’s been a slow start to the afternoon for the teams doing install laps, practice starts and longer/heavy fuel runs for the most part. Daniel Ricciardo is the only driver to breach the top five from the afternoon runners so far, he’s fifth. Fernando Alonso has slotted in just behind Ricciardo for Alpine, a tenth faster than his team-mate Esteban Ocon this morning. --- **15:35** A crucial afternoon of action is underway and all but one car has been out on track so far. That’s the W12 of Lewis Hamilton. In a test punctuated by less running than its rivals, Hamilton is yet to venture on track. Most cars this afternoon have focused on install laps and practice starts, although Nikita Mazepin for Haas is steadily edging towards the fastest lap of his team-mate Mick Schumacher from the morning session, the duo are sixth and seventh. Max Verstappen is counted with seven laps, but is yet to actually complete a full lap owing to constantly coming back into the pits. Carlos Sainz has done the same but netted three laps. Sebastian Vettel has been the busiest driver on track so far with 14 laps and counting. --- [![](https://storage.googleapis.com/the-race-com.appspot.com/1/2021/03/XPB_1077767_HiRes-300x200.jpg)](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/perez-sets-fastest-time-of-bahrain-test-in-penultimate-session/) Perez sets fastest time of Bahrain test in penultimate session [Read more](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/perez-sets-fastest-time-of-bahrain-test-in-penultimate-session/) **15:00** And now we head into a lunch break, following an increasingly-traditional late-session FIA test red flag. Sergio Perez, who has now concluded his first F1 pre-season test as a Red Bull driver and holds the fastest time of the test so far, spent the final half-hour in pitstop practice, and nobody really threatened his time. We’ll reconvene in an hour’s time for the final four hour of this test. 1 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.187s 2 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 3 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 4 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 5 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 6 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 7 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 8 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 9 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m35.274s 10 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s --- **13:30** We have a new fastest lap of the three-day test, courtesy of Sergio Perez in the Red Bull. The Mexican finds an extra tenth on the C4 compared to his previous C3 effort, but what is particularly curious is that he was only fastest of all in the final sector, so clearly kept the tyres alive well. Let’s see if we get any more headline-grabbing performance runs in this final half-hour before the lunchbreak. 1 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.187s 2 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 3 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 4 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 5 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 6 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 7 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 8 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 9 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m35.274s 10 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s **13:00** Three cars have cleared a race distance in this first three hours, they being Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo and Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes. George Russell on his first day in the Williams is really close to that coveted 57-lap count, and Mick Schumacher (Haas), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) are not far off. It’s just been a really smooth test session all around. 1 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.309s 2 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 3 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 4 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 5 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 6 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 7 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 8 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 9 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s 10 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m36.640s **12:35** Ah, the dreaded rapid-fire update – but it’s necessary here, as Sergio Perez sets the new fastest time of the day with his C3-shod Red Bull. That came despite some main straight dicing with Kimi Raikkonen, and was largely made possible by the final sector. If the Red Bull is preserving its tyres better than the Ferrari, well, that’s no huge shock going off the last two years of Formula 1. 1 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.309s 2 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 3 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 4 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 5 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 6 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 7 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 8 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 9 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s 10 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m36.640s **12:30** We’re still looking at the same top two here, but there are improvements further down in the top five. Lando Norris has switched to C3s after his very encouraging C2 run, but the one-compound step hasn’t brought a ton of laptime, with Norris improving by just under a tenth. Pierre Gasly has done a couple of C4 runs during the past half-hour, but he’s found big improvement difficult to find. His first attempt was a 1m30.828s that sort of fizzled out towards the final sector, and his second attempt was more even throughout the lap – but final-sector gains came at the cost of earlier losses, and he was a couple of tenths slower. An improvement from Esteban Ocon, too, on C3s, but equally it’s not a massive one. So Leclerc’s time still stands tall. 1 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 2 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.543s 3 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.661s 4 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m30.828s 5 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.310s 6 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 7 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.406s 8 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 9 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s 10 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m36.640s **12:05** There was not a massive amount going on on the timing screens – or on track, really – as we approached the halfway point in the penultimate session of testing. Every team’s doing reasonable in terms of mileage, with Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc propping up the order on 23 and 21 laps respectively. The three Mercedes-powered teams have all hit at least 40 laps, so that’s encouraging in light of that gearbox predicament from earlier. While it’s been all race runs up and down the presumable 2021 grid, Norris had been doing a few push laps on C2s. He initially moved himself up to sixth place in the order, and has now shot up into second right at the halfway point, just a quarter of a second down on Leclerc. Also right around that time, Esteban Ocon posted a marginal improvement on unmarked C3s, while Mick Schumacher came up just short of improving on new C4s. Then, a few minutes later, Sergio Perez came up with Red Bull’s fastest time of the test yet – a 1m30.543s on C3s, just short of Leclerc’s effort on the same tyre. 1 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 2 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.543s 3 Norris (McLaren) 1m30.737s 4 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m31.233s 5 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.517s 6 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 7 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.635s 8 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 9 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s 10 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m36.640s **11:30** We were entering something of a lull as drivers embark on long runs and potentially even grand prix simulations, but Red Bull newcomer Sergio Perez has now broken up the monotony. He’s been running C2s all day but this has been the qualifying-est attempt so far and took him to within half a second of Leclerc’s time, with a fastest final sector of all. It’s Perez’s quickest effort of this test, albeit still a quarter of a second down on what Verstappen had managed on the opening day. There’s also a C3 push lap from Ocon, but it’s not much better than his previous C2 effort, yielding an improvement of only around two tenths. 1 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 2 Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.927s 3 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m31.233s 4 Ocon (Alpine) 1m31.630s 5 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 6 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.635s 7 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 8 Norris (McLaren) 1m32.999s 9 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s 10 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m36.640s **11:00** The two teams that have had the highest-profile reliability issues in this test – Mercedes and Aston Martin, missing basically half a day each with gearbox problems – have been among the busiest so far this morning in terms of mileage. Lance Stroll already has more than 20 laps on the board. Pierre Gasly has gotten within three quarters of a second of that Leclerc time on unmarked C3s, which have been produced at Pirelli’s back-up factory in Turkey as opposed to the usual Romania-manufactured ones. So they should theoretically be not substantially different – which, again, paints that early Leclerc time in a really good light. Another thing that paints it in an even better light is that Leclerc has just attempted a second qualifying-sim-looking lap on a different fresh sets of C3, and had a much tougher time of it. He was almost six tenths down on his own time after two sectors, before giving up on the lap after running wide at Turn 13. 1 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 2 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m31.233s 3 Perez (Red Bull) 1m31.890s 4 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.053s 5 Ocon (Alpine) 1m32.420s 6 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m32.635s 7 Russell (Williams) 1m32.731s 8 Norris (McLaren) 1m33.745s 9 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m36.100s 10 Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) 1m36.640s **10:30** Initial C3 laps are logged by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and the Ferrari-engined Haas of Mick Schumacher, and Schumacher comes out the quicker of the two. His 1m32.803s not only sits as Haas’ best lap of testing so far, but takes him two tenths up on Leclerc’s time – and though Leclerc had been on used C3s to Schumacher’s new, it seems indicative of the low-key test Ferrari has had so far. Except that “so far” ends now. Leclerc heads back to the pits, comes out on fresh C3s, and fires in a 1m30.486s – which is just two tenths off Bottas’ current test benchmark, which was set on tyres that are two steps softer! It’s business time. We’re going to see some performance today. 1 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m30.486s 2 Schumacher (Haas) 1m32.803s 3 Russell (Williams) 1m33.350s 4 Bottas (Mercedes) 1m35.936s 5 Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m37.163s 6 Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m37.196s **10:00** The final day of testing is officially underway, with Kimi Raikkonen kicking off the proceedings by sending his Alfa Romeo out of the pitlane. It feels like this pre-season really blown by, but that’s the magic of having just three days of on-track running. Red Bull [topped the first day with Max Verstappen,](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/verstappen-starts-testing-on-top-tough-day-for-mercedes/) while Mercedes [headed the second with Valtteri Bottas.](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/bottas-puts-mercedes-on-top-on-f1-test-day-two/) You’d expect both teams, and all teams really, to be quicker today, as F1 teams do tend to favour performance running towards the end of testing. Here’s today’s full driver roster: **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 Jr **AlphaTauri** – Pierre Gasly/Yuki Tsunoda **Alfa Romeo** – Kimi Raikkonen **Haas** – Mick Schumacher/Nikita Mazepin **Williams** – George Russell