Max finishes Bahrain test as quickest: 'No-one is showing their hand'

Published on 12 March 2022 by Kees-Jan Koster

Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen finished the three-day test in Bahrain as quickest. The Dutch Oracle Red Bull Racing driver had an issue free afternoon, drove 53 laps and when the flag went down, he was seven tenths of a second faster than anyone else.

“The car feels good, also in terms of balance. The latter is very important”, says Max. “We did everything in our test programme, and that is always positive. The new parts on the car worked well, as we hoped for. We have learned a lot about the car and made it faster, exactly what we aimed for.”

But the lap times do not tell us a lot, knows Max: “Going faster, is a natural progression through the day, also because we tried different tyres for the purpose of next weeks’ Grand Prix. No-one is showing their hand, neither did we.”

Max continues: “I think this season it is less about how well you do in the first three races, and much more about how well we can continue to develop the car. Everything is new and there is still a lot to learn about the car, so during the season we must make the car go faster and continue to make progress.”

After the lunch break, we see again Lando Norris in the McLaren, as Daniel Ricciardo tested positive for Covid. The Australian can probably still take part in the Grand Prix in Bahrain next week. After 25 minutes there is a virtual safety car, after a part of the Williams W44 came lose and ended up on track. Like Williams also Mercedes is using the brightly coloured flow viz again.

Verstappen comes out on track after an hour. He does three runs on the hard tyre and sets a time of 1:34.467 (P3). Then he changes to the medium (C3) tyre and sets the then fastest time in Bahrain: 1:32.645, which is half a second faster than the time set by Perez in the morning. After two hours Max has done seventeen laps.

During the last two hours of the Formula 1 test there is a red flag caused by Mick Schumacher when he spins. Not much later goes Leclerc into P1 by setting a 1:32.415 on the soft C4 compound, two tenths of a second faster than Max. Half an hour later goes George Russell into the top three (1:32.759) on the soft C5 compound.

Valtteri Bottas comes to a halt during the last 30 minutes and that is the end for Alfa Romeo. Just before that the Finn set the fourth quickest time on the mediums. With 25 minutes to go Max comes out on soft tyres (C5), the Dutchman spins when entering the last corner as he wants to start his quick lap. The second time things go as they should and what follows are three purple sectors and the fastest time (1:31.973) for the world champion. But with only nine minutes to go Max takes another two tenths of that time, and sets a 1:31.720, to the satisfaction of the Red Bull team.

In the last five minutes goes Fernando Alonso in the Alpine into third position (1:32.698) on soft tyres. The Spaniard was with 122 laps very productive, but Nicolas Latifi (Williams) did even more laps. Max concludes the afternoon after 53 laps and seven tenths of a second ahead of Ferrari.

Results Formule 1-test Bahrain – Saturday

01 Verstappen   Red Bull       1:31.720   53
02 Leclerc      Ferrari        1:32.415   51
03 Alonso       Alpine         1:32.698   122
04 Russell      Mercedes       1:32.759   71
05 Bottas       Alfa Romeo     1:32.985   68
06 Tsunoda      AlphaTauri     1:33.002   57
07 Perez        Red Bull       1:33.105   43
08 Schumacher   Haas           1:33.151   57
09 Norris       McLaren        1:33.191   90
10 Vettel       Aston Martin   1:33.821   81
11 Zhou         Alfa Romeo     1:33.959   82
12 Gasly        AlphaTauri     1:34.865   91
13 Sainz        Ferrari        1:34.905   68
14 Albon        Williams       1:35.171   18
15 Latifi       Williams       1:35.634   124
16 Stroll       Aston Martin   1:36.029   53
17 Hamilton     Mercedes       1:36.217   78
18 Magnussen    Haas           1:38.616   38