Bahrain, closing day: Russell in the lead

The F1 field has gone through interesting and revealing days, from which it is very difficult to draw any rational conclusions from the Bahrain testing.

The final day brought yet another curiosity, particularly regarding the weather, as this time the teams were greeted with much milder and warmer conditions. There was no shortage of other events either, as Lance Stroll missed the first few hours due to illness, a glass panel collapsed from the starting grid side, and then a bus entering the track caused a bizarre red flag phase... Charles Leclerc managed to set the fastest lap of the morning, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli in second place, and Lando Norris also making it onto the imaginary podium behind them.

In the afternoon hours, the focus shifted to longer stints, yet Max Verstappen took the lead and held it until the last ten minutes of the test. At that point, George Russell came along and ultimately improved upon that lap time, but strangely, the best time of the three days was not this one, but rather the result set by Carlos Sainz during yesterday's session. Different compounds, different strategies, performance hiding, that's all we know for sure, along with McLaren's development and Williams' progress. The rest is impossible to predict.

Photo: F1