Pre-season testing Bahrain – Day 3: Sergio Perez finishes the week in first place ahead of a Mercedes and an Alfa Romeo
Continuation and end of winter testing. Discover the summary of this Saturday, the last day of winter testing before the start of the 2023 Formula 1 season on Friday.
Sergio Perez has set the fastest time of the day in 1’30”305. He is ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Charles Leclerc, who had recorded the fastest time in the morning, is ultimately fourth ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz. Nyck de Vries is last with a time of 1’38”244.
Reliability was still on point today. Besides Piastri’s spin and Bottas’ breakdown this morning, the day was rather calm. The teams fine-tuned their setups to gain performance without revealing too much. We’ll have to wait for Q3 to learn more about the actual performances of the 10 teams.
As with every end of the session, the FIA continued to test its safety measures this afternoon with VSC and safety car trials, causing the cars to return to the pit lane under a red flag procedure. However, later in the evening, 6 drivers participated in a slipstreaming simulation to provide some excitement for the viewers at home.
The next time their Formula 1 cars hit the track will be next Friday for the practice sessions of the first Grand Prix of the season at the same circuit, in Sakhir.
The ranking for this Saturday in Bahrain:
| N° | Driver | Team | Times | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Perez | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1:30.305 | 133 | |
| 2 | Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:30.664 | +0.359 | 65 |
| 3 | Bottas | Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN | 1:30.827 | +0.522 | 131 |
| 4 | Leclerc | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:31.024 | +0.719 | 67 |
| 5 | Sainz | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:31.036 | +0.731 | 75 |
| 6 | Tsunoda | Scuderia AlphaTauri | 1:31.261 | +0.956 | 79 |
| 7 | Magnussen | Haas F1 Team | 1:31.381 | +1.076 | 94 |
| 8 | Russell | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:31.442 | +1.137 | 83 |
| 9 | Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | 1:31.450 | +1.145 | 80 |
| 10 | Drugovich | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | 1:32.075 | +1.770 | 77 |
| 11 | Norris | McLaren F1 Team | 1:32.160 | +1.855 | 37 |
| 12 | Gasly | BWT Alpine F1 Team | 1:32.762 | +2.457 | 56 |
| 13 | Albon | Williams Racing | 1:32.793 | +2.488 | 136 |
| 14 | Ocon | BWT Alpine F1 Team | 1:33.257 | +2.952 | 76 |
| 15 | Hülkenberg | Haas F1 Team | 1:33.329 | +3.024 | 77 |
| 16 | Piastri | McLaren F1 Team | 1:33.655 | +3.350 | 44 |
| 17 | De Vries | Scuderia AlphaTauri | 1:38.244 | +7.939 | 87 |
