Perez set the time on the last of the three days of testing, before the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix at the Sakhir circuit on March 5. Lewis Hamilton was second-quickest for Mercedes, ahead of Valtteri Bottas for Alfa Romeo.
Mercedes bounced back after a scare on day two, which led to an overnight investigation in its lack of pace, with the second-quickest time on the final day, set by George Russell.
Other day toppers included two-time world champion Max Verstappen for Red Bull Racing on the opening day, and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, who led day two in a shock result.
Bahrain testing results: Perez fastest for Red Bull Racing
Pos |
Driver |
23 Feb |
24 Feb |
25 Feb |
1 |
Sergio Pérez |
1'33.751 |
1'30.305 |
|
2 |
Lewis Hamilton |
1'33.508 |
1'33.954 |
1'30.664 |
3 |
Valtteri Bottas |
1'34.558 |
1'30.827 |
|
4 |
Charles Leclerc |
1'33.267 |
1'32.725 |
1'31.024 |
5 |
Carlos Sainz Jr. |
1'33.253 |
1'32.486 |
1'31.036 |
6 |
Yuki Tsunoda |
1'34.671 |
1'35.708 |
1'31.261 |
7 |
Kevin Magnussen |
1'35.087 |
1'33.442 |
1'31.381 |
8 |
George Russell |
1'34.174 |
1'33.654 |
1'31.442 |
9 |
Fernando Alonso |
1'32.866 |
1'32.205 |
1'31.450 |
10 |
Zhou Guanyu |
1'33.723 |
1'31.610 |
|
11 |
Max Verstappen |
1'32.837 |
1'31.650 |
|
12 |
Felipe Drugovich |
1'34.564 |
1'32.075 |
|
13 |
Lando Norris |
1'33.462 |
1'35.522 |
1'32.160 |
14 |
Nyck de Vries |
1'34.559 |
1'32.222 |
1'38.244 |
15 |
Nico Hülkenberg |
1'34.424 |
1'32.466 |
1'33.329 |
16 |
Logan Sargeant |
1'34.324 |
1'32.549 |
|
17 |
Pierre Gasly |
1'34.822 |
1'33.186 |
1'32.762 |
18 |
Alexander Albon |
1'33.671 |
1'32.793 |
|
19 |
Oscar Piastri |
1'34.888 |
1'33.175 |
1'33.655 |
20 |
Esteban Ocon |
1'34.871 |
1'33.490 |
1'33.257 |
Bahrain testing stats: Alonso runs most laps
Order | Driver | Laps | km |
1 | Fernando Alonso | 270 | 1461 |
2 | Nyck de Vries | 246 | 1331 |
3 | Logan Sargeant | 229 | 1239 |
4 | Lewis Hamilton | 220 | 1190 |
5 | Kevin Magnussen | 219 | 1185 |
6 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | 218 | 1179 |
7 | Alexander Albon | 210 | 1136 |
8 | Yuki Tsunoda | 210 | 1136 |
9 | Sergio Pérez | 209 | 1131 |
10 | Max Verstappen | 204 | 1104 |
11 | Valtteri Bottas | 202 | 1093 |
12 | Zhou Guanyu | 200 | 1082 |
13 | Charles Leclerc | 199 | 1076 |
14 | Nico Hülkenberg | 196 | 1060 |
15 | Esteban Ocon | 178 | 963 |
16 | George Russell | 178 | 963 |
17 | Pierre Gasly | 175 | 947 |
18 | Oscar Piastri | 170 | 920 |
19 | Lando Norris | 142 | 768 |
20 | Felipe Drugovich | 117 | 633 |
Bahrain testing stats: AlphaTauri logs most kilometers
Order | Make | Laps | km |
1 | AlphaTauri | 456 | 2467 |
2 | Williams | 439 | 2375 |
3 | Ferrari | 417 | 2256 |
4 | Haas | 415 | 2245 |
5 | Red Bull | 413 | 2235 |
6 | Alfa Romeo | 402 | 2175 |
7 | Mercedes | 398 | 2153 |
8 | Aston Martin | 387 | 2094 |
9 | Alpine | 353 | 1910 |
10 | McLaren | 312 | 1688 |
Bahrain testing stats: Mercedes power units rack up the laps
Order | Engine | Laps | km |
1 | Mercedes | 1536 | 8312 |
2 | Ferrari | 1234 | 6678 |
3 | Honda RBPT | 869 | 4703 |
4 | Renault | 353 | 1910 |
What happened on day one in Bahrain F1 testing?
Verstappen, the only driver to run for the full day as all other F1 teams split their programmes, put in a 1m32.837s midway through the afternoon to improve on his effort that led the morning session.
Fernando Alonso, his Aston Martin running fresh C3 tyres, was only 0.029 seconds off Verstappen’s benchmark to cap a solid recovery, after the team’s day endured a false start when Felipe Drugovich – standing in for the injured Lance Stroll – suffered a sensor issue on his first out-lap which triggered the only red flag of the day.
Verstappen remained on top by the end of the opening day, having notched up 157 laps in total, to show strong pace and reliability from Red Bull’s RB19 on its first public outing.
Ferrari also enjoyed a decent start, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc third and fourth respectively, as the Italian squad comfortably pushed past a century of laps with the SF-23 F1 car.
Lando Norris lost time, stuck in the garage with the team repairing a wheel fairing issue, but he later took fifth place, six-tenths off Verstappen’s leading effort.
Hamilton led a solid day for Mercedes in sixth place.
Cla | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 157 | 1'32.837 | 209.864 | ||
2 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 60 | 1'32.866 | 0.029 | 0.029 | 209.799 |
3 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 72 | 1'33.253 | 0.416 | 0.387 | 208.928 |
4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 64 | 1'33.267 | 0.430 | 0.014 | 208.897 |
5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 40 | 1'33.462 | 0.625 | 0.195 | 208.461 |
6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 83 | 1'33.508 | 0.671 | 0.046 | 208.358 |
7 | Alex Albon | Williams | 74 | 1'33.671 | 0.834 | 0.163 | 207.996 |
8 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 67 | 1'33.723 | 0.886 | 0.052 | 207.880 |
9 | George Russell | Mercedes | 69 | 1'34.174 | 1.337 | 0.451 | 206.885 |
10 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 75 | 1'34.324 | 1.487 | 0.150 | 206.556 |
11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 51 | 1'34.424 | 1.587 | 0.100 | 206.337 |
12 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 71 | 1'34.558 | 1.721 | 0.134 | 206.044 |
13 | Nyck de Vries | AlphaTauri | 85 | 1'34.559 | 1.722 | 0.001 | 206.042 |
14 | Felipe Drugovich | Aston Martin | 40 | 1'34.564 | 1.727 | 0.005 | 206.031 |
15 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 46 | 1'34.671 | 1.834 | 0.107 | 205.799 |
16 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 60 | 1'34.822 | 1.985 | 0.151 | 205.471 |
17 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 53 | 1'34.871 | 2.034 | 0.049 | 205.365 |
18 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 52 | 1'34.888 | 2.051 | 0.017 | 205.328 |
19 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 57 | 1'35.087 | 2.250 | 0.199 | 204.898 |
View full results |
What happened on day two in Bahrain F1 testing?
Verstappen lit up the timesheet in the afternoon session in the RB19 and carved his way to the top spot with a 1m31.650s on the C3 tyres.
With 30 minutes to go Zhou, who completed the full day in the Alfa Romeo C43, strapped on a set of C5 tyres and posted a 1m31.610s to depose Verstappen by 0.040s.
Alonso put Aston Martin third on the overall times with a 1m32.205s set on the C3 tyres, as he completed the second test day alone with team-mate Stroll on the sidelines.
F1 rookie Nyck de Vries was another driver to try out the softer compounds towards the end of the day and went fourth using the C4 tyres with his AlphaTauri.
Nico Hulkenberg lifted Haas to fifth, also aided by running on the C4 compound tyres, to shuffle the Friday morning leader Sainz to sixth overall for Ferrari.
Mercedes missed the last 90 minutes of track action because Russell suffered a hydraulic failure which left him stuck in fourth gear and triggered the only breakdown-related red flag. He also languished 13th in the times.
Cla | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 133 | 1'31.610 | 212.675 | ||
2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 47 | 1'31.650 | 0.040 | 0.040 | 212.582 |
3 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 130 | 1'32.205 | 0.595 | 0.555 | 211.303 |
4 | Nyck de Vries | AlphaTauri | 74 | 1'32.222 | 0.612 | 0.017 | 211.264 |
5 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 68 | 1'32.466 | 0.856 | 0.244 | 210.706 |
6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 70 | 1'32.486 | 0.876 | 0.020 | 210.661 |
7 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 154 | 1'32.549 | 0.939 | 0.063 | 210.517 |
8 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 68 | 1'32.725 | 1.115 | 0.176 | 210.118 |
9 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 74 | 1'33.175 | 1.565 | 0.450 | 209.103 |
10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 59 | 1'33.186 | 1.576 | 0.011 | 209.078 |
11 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 67 | 1'33.442 | 1.832 | 0.256 | 208.505 |
12 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 49 | 1'33.490 | 1.880 | 0.048 | 208.398 |
13 | George Russell | Mercedes | 26 | 1'33.654 | 2.044 | 0.164 | 208.033 |
14 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 76 | 1'33.751 | 2.141 | 0.097 | 207.818 |
15 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 72 | 1'33.954 | 2.344 | 0.203 | 207.369 |
16 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 65 | 1'35.522 | 3.912 | 1.568 | 203.965 |
17 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 85 | 1'35.708 | 4.098 | 0.186 | 203.569 |
View full results |
What happened on day three in Bahrain F1 testing?
Leclerc set the morning pace, but his time was soon beaten in the afternoon by Lewis Hamilton.
But nobody could stop Red Bull, and it was Perez who rocketed to the top of the times, first with 1m30.616s and then 1m30.305s, to put him 0.359s clear of Hamilton.
Bottas finished the day third for Alfa Romeo, two tenths clear of Leclerc’s morning time. Sainz was fractionally slower than his team-mate, with Yuki Tsunoda rounding out the top six for AlphaTauri.
Cla | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 133 | 1'30.305 | 215.748 | ||
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 65 | 1'30.664 | 0.359 | 0.359 | 214.894 |
3 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 131 | 1'30.827 | 0.522 | 0.163 | 214.508 |
4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 67 | 1'31.024 | 0.719 | 0.197 | 214.044 |
5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 76 | 1'31.036 | 0.731 | 0.012 | 214.016 |
6 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 79 | 1'31.261 | 0.956 | 0.225 | 213.488 |
7 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 95 | 1'31.381 | 1.076 | 0.120 | 213.208 |
8 | George Russell | Mercedes | 83 | 1'31.442 | 1.137 | 0.061 | 213.066 |
9 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 80 | 1'31.450 | 1.145 | 0.008 | 213.047 |
10 | Felipe Drugovich | Aston Martin | 77 | 1'32.075 | 1.770 | 0.625 | 211.601 |
11 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 37 | 1'32.160 | 1.855 | 0.085 | 211.406 |
12 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 56 | 1'32.762 | 2.457 | 0.602 | 210.034 |
13 | Alex Albon | Williams | 136 | 1'32.793 | 2.488 | 0.031 | 209.964 |
14 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 76 | 1'33.257 | 2.952 | 0.464 | 208.919 |
15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 77 | 1'33.329 | 3.024 | 0.072 | 208.758 |
16 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 44 | 1'33.655 | 3.350 | 0.326 | 208.031 |
17 | Nyck de Vries | AlphaTauri | 87 | 1'38.244 | 7.939 | 4.589 | 198.314 |
View full results |