Bahrain, FP3: Leclerc quickest as Ferrari dominance continues

Ferrari completed a clean sweep of practice session one-twos at the Sakhir Circuit, with Charles Leclerc running quickest in the final hour of practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Monegasque driver set a best time of 1:29.569 on the soft compound Pirelli tyres with a little under 20 minutes left in the session. He was immediately followed on track by team-mate Sebastian Vettel who slotted into P2 0.169s behind.

The pace left all of their rivals in the shade, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton eventually becoming the Scuderia’s closest rival with a late qualifying sim that boosted him above team-mate Valtteri Bottas. The defending champion’s time of 1:30.334 still left him 0.765s adrift of Leclerc.

Australian Grand Prix winner Bottas was left with fourth place and his best lap of 1:30.389 left as the last man to get within a second of the Ferraris.

Haas’ Romain Grosjean took fifth place in the session, 1.249s behind Leclerc with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg sixth thanks to a lap of 1:30.910.

McLaren rookie Lando Norris continued to impress setting a lap of 1:30.955 to claim seventh plac ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Red Bull have looked decidedly out of sorts at the Bahrain circuit, with both Verstappen and team-mate Pierre Gasly complaining of poor grip on the C3 soft compound Pirelli on offer this weekend.

Verstappen ended the final practice session 1.390s off Leclerc but it was an even more disappointing session for Gasly who finished in P12 almost half a second behind his team-mate.

Norris McLaren team-mate Carlos Sainz took ninth place in the session ahead of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.