Pre-season testing ahead of the 2021 season has quickly come to a close in Bahrain and topping the final timesheet of the weekend was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on the C4 tyres after completing 64 laps.
AlphaTauri’s 2021 rookie, Yuki Tsunoda put the pedal to the metal this afternoon pushing the AT02 to land the second-fastest lap of the day on the C5 Pirellis.
a rapid end to the test for @yukitsunoda07 🔥 our rookie finishes P2 with a total of 91 laps in the afternoon session 💪 pic.twitter.com/EJdlwwsyLU
— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) March 14, 2021
Ferrari fans will rejoice after Carlos Sainz’s afternoon performance indicating some improvements in the SF21.
The Spanish driver finished out the day third on the timesheets just +0.651 off the pace of the Red Bull charger.
After spending some time at the top of the timesheet, Kimi Raikkonen’s fastest lap ranked fourth overall after an impressive afternoon consisting of a whopping 165 laps for Alfa Romeo.
A solid P4 for Kimi to put the finishing touch on pre-season testing in Bahrain 🏁 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/lTJsQ7ZXQ7
— Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN (@alfaromeoracing) March 14, 2021
Mercedes continue to work through a number of issues with the W12, however, Hamilton landed fifth after this afternoon’s final run, climbing the ranks from 11th earlier this afternoon.
Meanwhile, the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas only managed 16th overall and was 3.446s off the pace of Verstappen.
In sixth, this afternoon was George Russell in the Williams who completed an impressive 158 laps in the FW43B today.
158 laps completed and P6 overall.
Good work from @GeorgeRussell63 on Sunday to bring testing to a close 👍 pic.twitter.com/7a9zakigAi
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) March 14, 2021
The McLaren’s have had an impressive weekend across the board.
Lando Norris finished out the morning as third fastest but since then, fell to 11th – four behind teammate Daniel Ricciardo whose fastest lap today landed him in 7th after 76 laps.
The Aussie driver is then followed by the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez in eighth, who topped the morning timesheets on the C4 Pirellis.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso finished in P9, closely followed by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc closing out the top ten, whose fastest lap today clocked in +1.526 off the lead.
The next stop is Bahrain for the season-opening race which will finally reveal the true speed of the 2021 contenders, until then, here are the final results from this afternoon:
The @Aramco Pre-Season Test in Bahrain has officially come to an end 🇧🇭@Max33Verstappen was the fastest overall, with a lap time of 1:28.960 🚀#F1 #F1Testing @redbullracing pic.twitter.com/wwcDMCYYoZ
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 14, 2021
