Max Verstappen, the youngest driver in F1 today, finished preseason testing with a fastest lap time. The 20-year-old impressed on his debut weekend after finishing second behind Lewis Hamilton at the Australian Grand Prix last year. He has since added to his reputation as one of F1’s most exciting young stars and will be looking to take that success into this season.
Max Verstappen has finished the preseason testing as fastest driver. Max completed all sessions on the first day of testing, and was only beaten by one other driver.
SAKHIR, Bahrain (Reuters) – On the last day of preseason testing, reigning world champion Max Verstappen delivered a message to his competitors by establishing the best lap time of the week by almost half a second.
For the last day of the test on Saturday, Red Bull delivered a big upgrade package to their RB18 vehicle, and Verstappen began to explore its possibilities in the evening.
Under the floodlights, the Dutch driver gradually increased his speed as the sun fell over the Bahrain International Circuit, cycling through Pirelli’s softest tyre compounds and decreasing his lap time to 1:31.720 on the C5 compound.
During the test, Verstappen was 0.695s quicker than any other driver, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc coming closest with a time of 1:32.415 on the somewhat tougher C4 compound tyre.
On Saturday evening, Max Verstappen put down a marker in the freshly improved Red Bull. Getty Images/Dan Istitene/Formula 1/Formula 1
Although test timings are not often indicative of genuine performance ahead of a new Formula One season, Red Bull and Ferrari seem to be the overwhelming favorites to win the inaugural race in Bahrain next weekend.
Mercedes, the reigning constructors’ champions, were slow throughout the test, with Lewis Hamilton and his new colleague George Russell failing to get the most out of the team’s newest improvement.
On Saturday evening, Russell produced the team’s quickest lap of the test, although he was 1.039s slower than Verstappen on the identical tyre compound. It was also slower than Fernando Alonso of Alpine, who used the C4 compound and posted the third quickest time, 0.978s behind Verstappen.
Valtteri Bottas, a former Mercedes driver, was fifth quickest, but his Alfa Romeo skidded to a stop at the side of the course soon after setting a time of 1:32.285 on the C3 compound tyre. Alfa Romeo had a tough first test in Spain, with several mechanical difficulties, but Bottas’ performance on a reasonably hard compound offered the team some reason for optimism at the conclusion of a far more encouraging second test.
Eighteen of Formula One’s twenty drivers took part in the penultimate day of testing, with all but two teams switching drivers during the day. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who completed a full day of testing on Friday, and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who tested positive for Covid-19 earlier in the week and is confined to his hotel until the race next weekend, were the only drivers to miss out.
Mick Schumacher was still on track in the Haas, taking advantage of an extended stretch of test time for the American team at the time of writing. Due to a delay in Haas’ freight arriving in Bahrain, the team missed Thursday morning’s session, but all 10 teams decided to give it an additional hour after the conclusion of Friday’s running, one hour before the start of Saturday’s test, and another two hours after the chequered flag.
When the test for the other nine teams ended, Schumacher was ninth quickest.
The fastest laps were: (Tyre compounds in brackets)
1. Verstappen – Red Bull – 53 laps in 1:31.720 (C5) 2. Leclerc – Ferrari – 51 laps in 1:32.415 (C4) 3. Alonso – Alpine – 122 laps in 1:32.698 (C4) Russell – Mercedes – 1:32.759 (C5) – 71 laps 4. Russell – Mercedes – 1:32.759 (C5) 5. Bottas – Alfa Romeo – 68 laps in 1:32.985 (C3) 6. Tsunoda – AlphaTauri – 57 laps in 1:33.002 (C5) 7. Perez – Red Bull – 43 laps in 1:33.105 (C4) 8. Schumacher – Haas – 57 laps in 1:33.151 (C3) 9. Norris – McLaren – 90 laps in 1:33.191 (C3) Vettel – Aston Martin – 1:33.821 (C4) – 81 laps 10. Vettel – Aston Martin – 1:33.821 (C4) 11. Zhou – Alfa Romeo – 82 laps in 1:33.959 (C4) Gasly – AlphaTauri – 1:34.865 (C4) – 91 laps 12. Gasly – AlphaTauri – 1:34.865 (C4) Sainz – Ferrari – 1:34.905 (C5) – 68 laps 13. Sainz – Ferrari – 1:34.905 (C5) 14. Albon – Williams – 18 laps in 1:35.171 (C3) 15. Latifi – Williams – 124 laps in 1:35.634 (C3) 16. Stroll – Aston Martin – 53 laps in 1:36.029 (C3) 78 laps – 17. Hamilton – Mercedes – 1:36.217 (C5) 18. Haas – Magnussen – 1:38.616 (C2) – 38 laps
