F1 preseason: Final day underway in Bahrain

The third and final day of testing is underway at the Bahrain International Circuit. This is the last bit of track time allocated to the teams ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 28.

What's happened so far?

• When the session started, the weather was much more favourable than the first two days. The sun was out, the air temperature was down at 23C and the wind had dropped.

• Charles Leclerc set the early pace in his Ferrari with a 1:30.486 on the C3 compound tyre. The usual caveats around unknown fuel loads apply, but the lap time compared favourably with the best time set by Valtteri Bottas on Saturday with the faster C5 compound, which left the overnight benchmark at 1:30.289.

• Sergio Perez focused on C2 tyres early in the session but had a short stoppage when he had to return to the pits with an apparent leak on his Red Bull. He returned to the track on C3s in the third hour of the morning session to improve on Leclerc's time with a 1:30.309. He then set the fastest time of the test with a 1:30.187 on the C4 compound in the final hour before the lunch break.

• Max Verstappen jumped in the Red Bull in the afternoon and became the first driver to set a time under 90 seconds, with a 1:29.792. The quick time, set on the Test tyre (which is identical to the C3 but manufactured in Turkey rather than Hungary), only underlined the growing belief that Red Bull will be the team to beat at the first race.

• Bottas continued to make up for lost time in the Mercedes with a series of eight and nine lap runs on the C2 compound, but did not appear to be focused on single-lap performance.

• Lews Hamilton took over in the afternoon but continued to run relatively heavy fuel. It remains to be seen if Mercedes will show its true pace in the final hour of the test.

• It was a drama-free opening session, with no red-flag stoppages delaying track time. There were no major issues for any teams either, with all 10 completing a productive number of laps.

• Aston Martin also seemed to be focused on heavy-fuel running and jumped out of the car with 90 minutes remaining when the team encountered an issue on the car which required the blinds to be drawn across the front of the garage -- something teams are only allowed to do when the floor of the car is removed.

• The evening session, held under the lights, is expected to feature the most representative times of preseason so far. It will be when teams have the chance to conduct qualifying simulations in conditions more similar to qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix in two weeks time.

Times with 1hr30m remaining

1. Verstappen - Red Bull - 1:29.942 (T) - 40 laps
3. Ricciardo - McLaren - 1:30.144 (C4) - 29 laps
2. Perez - Red Bull - 1:30.187 (C4) - 49 laps
5. Raikkonen - Alfa Romeo - 1:30.441 (C4) - 132 laps
4. Leclerc - Ferrari - 1:30.486 (C3) - 80 laps
8. Alonso - Alpine - 1:30.573 (C3) - 42 laps
6. Norris - McLaren - 1:30.661 (C3) - 56 laps
7. Gasly - AlphaTauri - 1:30.828 (C4) - 76 laps
9. Ocon - Alpine - 1:31.310 (C3) - 61 laps
10. Mazepin - Haas - 1:31.531 (C4) - 27 laps
11. Schumacher - Haas - 1:32.053 (C3) - 78 laps
12. Bottas - Mercedes - 1:32.406 (C2) - 86 laps
13. Hamilton - Mercedes - 1:32.556 (T) - 33 laps
14. Russell - Williams - 1:32.731 (C2) - 136 laps
15. Vettel - Aston Martin - 1:35.041 (C3) - 56 laps
16. Sainz - Ferrari - 1:35.050 (C2) - 62 laps
17. Tsunoda - AlphaTauri - 1:35.200 (C2) - 59 laps
18. Stroll - Aston Martin - 1:36.100 (C3) - 80 laps

(Tyre compounds in brackets - T= Test tyre equivalent to C3)