Sergio Perez topped the timesheets for Red Bull from Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes as pre-season testing wrapped up in Sakhir on Sunday (AEDT).
Perez has emerged as a crucial cog in teammate Max Verstappen’s world championship success over the past two seasons.
And after three days trying out their 2023 cars in the desert all the signs are that Red Bull will be hard to deny next Sunday in the Bahrain Grand Prix, the first of a record 23-race season.
“Red Bull seem to be very strong in these three days,” said Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc after Verstappen had been quickest on the first day of testing on Thursday.
“I feel we have some work to do,” added Leclerc, who will be hoping new Ferrari chief Frederic Vasseur can bring a change of fortune for the Scuderia on raceday after Ferrari’s title challenge last term was undone by a mix of poor strategy and reliability.
Testing concluded with Perez 0.359 seconds up on Hamilton as Verstappen sat out the final day.
There was an upbeat mood in the Mercedes garage with the new car performing well and showing no signs of the bouncing that dogged last year’s W13.
“We’re not quite where we want to be but it’s a good platform to start from,” commented Hamilton.
Teammate George Russell, who secured his first win in Brazil last year, said: “I believe we have improved the car over the course of testing and got the W14 in a much better window today. There is still plenty of work to do but we’re in better shape for next week with more to come.”
Australian driver Oscar Piastri became the first driver in testing to spin out after briefly losing control at Turn 10, doing a complete 360 before driving on again as if nothing happened.
It was an impressive recovery from the Australian rookie, who moved up to third position and was otherwise putting together a decent lap before the spin.
“He’s going to lose it and we haven’t seen much of that in testing as he goes down the hill to 10 but luckily there’s a carpark worth of run-off there,” one commentator said on Sky Sports.
“He gathers it together, crucially keeps it out of the barrier and that’s about one of the only incidents we’ve seen in three days where a driver has to catch it and we were onboard when it happened.
“Our first spin in three days, that’s crazy isn’t it?”
“He goes over the crest, just got to slow it down and it’s bumpy there,” added another commentator.
“He goes over the bumps there and the McLaren not riding it well and the rear snapping in an instant. He did quite well to get his bearings but it was just the bumps. This circuit, the bumps generally are a bit worse than last year.”
There were more issues for McLaren later in testing as Piastri had to pull into the garage after 25 laps as the team worked on fixing what they described as a “minor issue” with the front winglets.
“The team are currently conducting some temporary strengthening work on the front winglets to ensure we can complete today’s running,” McLaren told Sky Sports in a statement.
“It’s a very minor issue that will be permanently fixed for the Grand Prix next weekend.”
And in more drama surrounding McLaren, a frustrated Lando Norris was seen by respected reporter Will Buxton punching a wall after finishing the final day of testing 11th-fastet of 17 drivers.
“I actually saw him leave the garage and walk to the little driver’s room on the side and, very unlike Lando, he actually punched the flimsy, makeshift wall as he walked through,” Buxton said.
“That little bit of frustration. You can tell it’s not quite right.”
Valtteri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo occupied third from Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari, with Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) sixth.
Further down the times in an Aston Martin came Felipe Drugovich, who stood in for Lance Stroll, missing after a cycling accident.
Drugovich, 22 and born in Brazil, won last season’s Formula 2 title and is on standby to substitute for Stroll should the Canadian son of team owner Lawrence Stroll be unfit for next weekend’s race.
FINAL SESSION TIMESHEET
Sergio Perez (Red Bull) 1:30.305 (133 laps)
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:30.664 (65)
Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 1:30.827 (131)
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1:31.024 (67)
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) 1:31.036 (75)
Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1:31.261 (79)
Kevin Magnussen (Haas) 1:31.381 (94)
George Russell (Mercedes) 1:31.442 (83)
Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 1:31.450 (80)
Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin) 1:32.075 (77)
Lando Norris (McLaren) 1:32.160 (37)
Pierre Gasly (Alpine) 1:32.762 (56)
Alexander Albon (Williams) 1:32.793 (136)
Esteban Ocon (Alpine) 1:33.257 (76)
Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) 1:33.329 (77)
Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1:33.655 (44)
Nyck De Vries (AlphaTauri) 1:38.244 (87)
