Motorsports

Charles Leclerc ends pre-season testing on top in Bahrain

By Balazs Szabo on

Ferrari’s Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc posted the quickest lap on the ultimate day of pre-season testing in Bahrain to finish the working on top forward of Mercedes racer George Russell and Stake F1 driver Zhou Guanyu.

Clearly the groups do not need to reveal an excessive amount of and also will solely know the whole image subsequent week however Ferrari do look sturdy with improved consistency and decreased tyre degration.

“I’m excited to be back on track”, stated Ferrari group principal Fred Vasseur. “For sure it’s better to be at the top than down the back, but you don’t know about the fuel loads of the others or the engine settings. The important thing for us is the feeling of Carlos and Charles and they both seem happy with the feeling in the car and the driveability. We also have to stay calm with this, trust the feedback and know we have a lot to do on the development – for sure Red Bull are ahead.”

Ferrari have been saying since day one which Red Bull is forward, and absolutely they’re, provided that Verstappen ended right this moment at simply 4 tenths with a lap on used C3 tyres in comparison with the softest compound for Leclerc. The latter tyre nevertheless is not ideally suited for Bahrain both whereas the C3 would be the tender compound for the Bahrain race weekend.

Mercedes additionally appeared pretty pleased with their day as they group tried an modified model of their entrance suspension with a unique chassis mounting or the rear higher wishbone. The group did not expertise any main issues and noticed George Russell go second quickest close to the top of the day on a recent set of C4 tyres.

Kick Sauber had a useful day with Zhou quietly doing plenty of laps and simply earlier than the FIA began their very own process testing by waving a purple flag he crossed the road to go third quickest of the day.

Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon additionally loved good runs on the C4 tyre to finish up fifth and sixth quickest.

Behind them was Oscar Piastri who was notable for unusually excessive tyre degradation. On monitor concurrently Alonso did his simulation, Piastri famous significantly extra tempo regression and was 1s a lap slower by lap 11. Neither of the 2 appeared to go for outright efficiency laps. Alonso had some efficiency runs earlier however didn’t do any on the tender C4 or C5 compounds.

Sainz and Perez accomplished right this moment’s top ten with their time in the seat earlier than lunch.


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