This weekend, Oscar Piastri celebrates a milestone: he is driving his fiftieth Grand Prix in Bahrain. The chances of him sealing this milestone with a victory seem high. He also set the pace in the final practice session for McLaren, ahead of teammate Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen is nearly one and a half seconds behind.
The final practice session in Bahrain doesn’t offer much solace for many teams. The main reason: the track temperature. Late in the afternoon in the desert, it’s still 43 degrees, but by the start of the evening during the qualifying session, under artificial light, it will be significantly cooler. Therefore, it’s not very busy when the last training hour opens. Apart from some reconnaissance laps by Oliver Bearman, Esteban Ocon (Haas), and Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), apparently in search of some extra test data, almost nothing happens in the first quarter of an hour.
Only halfway through the session, with a somewhat cooler track temperature, does it get busier on the track. Lando Norris improves Hamilton’s fastest time by over a second, Max Verstappen has to abort a qualifying simulation, including the fastest first sector, after he ends up outside the white lines. According to the world champion, the driving behavior of Red Bull’s RB21 is ‘terrible’. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri clocks the best time for McLaren: he is almost half a second faster than his British colleague.
The only one who can keep up with the McLarens, even on the softest (red) tire, is Verstappen. At least, it seems that way. The margin is only 0.2 seconds, but the lap would not have stood due to exceeding track limits in turn 4. Verstappen already hinted on Friday that the gap with McLaren’s MCL39 is ‘quite large’ in his view.
In the closing minutes, the majority throw on another set of red tires for some flying laps. Piastri is once again in a class of his own, teammate Norris follows more than half a second behind, Verstappen is nearly one and a half seconds behind, and George Russell complains about a lack of grip despite his fourth time. Charles Leclerc is the best-of-the-rest: he is almost a second slower than Piastri in the Ferrari.
