SAKHIR, Bahrain – Red Bull and Max Verstappen closed out pre-season Formula One testing at the Bahrain Int’l Circuit on top of the speed charts Sunday.
Verstappen led the way with a best time of 1:28.960 ahead of AlphaTauri rookie Yuki Tsunoda, which gave the Honda engine program a one-two result on the final day of testing.
“It was another good day and we got through the whole program,” said Verstappen.
“Conditions were a bit different to day one so we had to adjust the car a bit as we went along but from our side it was very smooth, as it has been throughout the whole test. I think we can say it has been a good weekend but of course that doesn’t give you any guarantees and all teams are doing different programmes at testing. We always look into what we can improve and for sure there are still things we want to work on but I think all teams will have that. We’ll find out for sure in a couple of weeks in Q3 where we really are but in general I would say the car feels good and I’m looking forward to going racing.”
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was third fastest despite losing a bit of track time to a hydraulic issue. He still managed 79 laps Sunday as he prepares for his first season driving for Ferrari. Sainz had a brief on-track battle with Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, who was fourth fastest, which saw the two touch and go off track late in the day.
Lewis Hamilton was back on track for Mercedes but spent the first hour of the test in the garage before eventually hitting the track as the sun was setting. He set the fifth fastest time of the day.
Raikkonen turned the most laps on the day, completing 165 circuits. George Russell completed 157 laps for Williams.