Image courtesy of Mercedes AMG Petronas
Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets for the first time this weekend in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Both Mercedes and Ferrari drivers traded fastest times at the beginning and end of the final hour of practice, with the reigning world champion coming out on top with a 1:34.599 on a soft tyre run ahead of qualifying. Although Ferrari was closer over a single lap as Sebastian Vettel narrowly missed out on the top spot, failing to pip Hamilton by 0.069 secs.
It’s likely to be a slightly different picture come qualifying as FP3 is unrepresentative of the cooler track and weather conditions that’ll be experienced when qualifying takes place under the floodlights.
Nico Rosberg ended the session three tenths back from Hamilton and Vettel, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in fourth. Whilst the Williams pair Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa followed in fifth and sixth. Just under two seconds off the benchmark was Pastor Maldonado in his Lotus in seventh, wih the sole Red Bull, Force India and Sauber of Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Nasr completing the top ten.
Drivers found themselves battling their cars with a major crosswind present on the track, making it challenging for them to get clean, representative laps with many having off-track excursions.
Ricciardo’s team-mate Daniil Kvyat was one of the victims of the difficult weather conditions as he found himself beached in a gravel trap at Turn four after a spin, bringing the session to a halt with red-flags. Red Bull managed to recover Kvyat’s car and have him complete a final run in the latter stages of the session.
