Bahrain, FP3: Räikkönen continues to set the pace

After taking top spot in Friday’s second practice session, Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen doubled up with the fastest time in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Finn, who escaped sanction for an unsafe release on FP2, set a supersoft-shod lap of 1:29.868 with around 20 minutes remaining in the session. The time was good and the Finn might have expected it to be challenged but in the end only Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo got anywhere close, with the Dutchman finishing 0.525s behind the Finn and Ricciardo six hundredths of a second further back.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took fourth spot with a time of 1:30.691. The Briton, who was hit with a five-place grid penalty overnight for a gearbox change, went wide on his quick lap and finished 0.823s behind Räikkönen.

The Finn’s team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, was the first onto supersofts after a long spell in the garage to fix loose bodywork damaged by a kerb early in the session, but the Ausralian Grand prix winner could only manage a time of 1:30.719 that left him in fifth place when the chequered fell. Valtteri Bottas finished in sixth place and was the last man within a second of Räikkönen’s P1 time.

Best of the rest were the Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz who took seventh and eighth respectively. Hulkenberg ended the session 1.276s off the pace, with Sainz five hundredths of a second behind his team-mate.

Pierre Gasly again impressed for Toro Rosso, finishing two tenths of a second behind Sainz. The Frenchman finished just seven thousandths of a second ahead of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and two hundredths ahead of Toro Rosso team-mate Brendon Hartley.