F1 | Bahrain Test, Day 3: Sainz finishes top in the morning

The morning session of this last day of pre-season testing in Bahrain also ended, but not without some setbacks. The action on the track was interrupted less than half an hour after the start due to a problem with the manhole in turn 11, with exactly the same dynamics and in the same area as it had already occurred during the second day.

In fact, along the entire curb entering Turn 11, a rain drain runs parallel, which the drivers often tend to pass over in order to widen the trajectory as much as possible in order to set up the section in the best possible way. following. If yesterday it was Lewis Hamilton who raised the manhole with his Mercedes, today it was Sergio Perez, with the stewards who immediately displayed the red flag when they noticed the piece of metal on the track.

FIA race director Neils Wittich quickly went to the area to assess the damage and understand what room for maneuver was, but the work took around two hours, with the session then resuming at 11.45am local time.

To make up for the time lost in the morning, the governing body decided to resume and continue until the end of the day without any stops, although, clearly, the teams will have to stop to replace the various elements on the car necessary for the driver change . In fact, only Williams had planned to complete the entire day with just one driver, in this case Alex Albon, while all the other teams had planned to alternate drivers during the break.

The first part of the day was therefore essentially divided into two sections, both from the point of view of the programs and what happened on the track. In the first part of the day, the teams focused on aerodynamic measurements, both through rakes and flow viz paint. The second part of the morning was dedicated mainly to long runs, with several drivers also completing race simulations.

Closing the morning in the lead was Carlos Sainz with the Ferrari SF-24, who stopped the clock at 1:31.247 with the C3 compound before the red flag. After the interruption, the Spaniard concentrated on a constant program in similar conditions, with five long runs of around ten laps each, always on the yellow band compound, evaluating different set-ups to find the ideal operating window of the single-seater and understand how the car reacts to changes.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Furthermore, this program also helped to have a clearer image of how certain interventions can influence the degradation and management of roofs. For Sainz, who will now hand over the wheel to Charles Leclerc, the morning ended with 71 laps in total.

Second time for Sergio Perez with Red Bull, 2 tenths behind the Ferrari driver. The Mexican focused more on short runs with setup variations: only in the last two hours did the Milton Keynes team move on to longer stints, both on the C2.

Behind him is Lewis Hamilton, whose best time of 1:31.999 places him in third place: his case is particular, because the time was recorded with the C5, a compound not suitable for Bahrain and the high temperatures of the morning , among other things at the start of a run that lasted 3 consecutive hard laps. The seven-time world champion then moved on to longer runs of around 6/7 laps, with a program repeated three times. It is interesting to mention that in the morning the team ran with the aero rakes to evaluate flow management, given that the mechanics made some changes to the front suspension compared to yesterday.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Fourth time for Lance Stroll, about eight tenths behind Sainz. At Aston Martin the technicians spent part of the morning carrying out further aerodynamic measurements, only moving on to long runs on the C1 towards the end of the session. For the afternoon, the program should be aimed specifically at long-distance stints, also to give Fernando Alonso the opportunity to make up for the time lost yesterday due to the red flag and gain more confidence behind the wheel of the AMR24.

In mid-table is Lando Norris, who completed just 20 laps in what proved to be a troubled session for the Woking team. As yesterday, today too the British team's program was interrupted by reliability problems, in this case with the clutch, which cost at least two hours.

Very particular program for Williams, sixth with Alex Albon: the Anglo-Thai driver did not carry out any long runs, but concentrated above all on very short runs, both to understand how the car reacts to setup changes and to work on the single lap tire preparation phase.

Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Seventh time for Kevin Magnussen, who was one of the few to complete an entire race simulation alternating the C3 compound with the C1, the hardest compound in the range. It is no mystery that Haas's objective was to understand whether the tire wear problems had been solved or not, so it is not surprising that the attention of the American team is directed towards long runs.

Long distance work also for Esteban Ocon with the Alpine, especially towards the end of the morning, and for Daniel Ricciardo with the Racing Bulls: the Australian, after completing some aerodynamic tests with the rakes in the first half hour, was the first to complete an entire race simulation starting on the C3 and then completing the other two stints on the harder compound.

The session will now continue until 5pm Italian time, without breaks, although at the moment the mechanics are working to adapt the single-seaters to the drivers who will take to the track in the afternoon session.