Bahrain GP: Verstappen leads Hamilton in final practice

Verstappen left it late to put in the fastest time of 1m32.194s using supersoft Pirellis and ended the session 0.110s ahead of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.

With the track temperature at the start of the session so high, most opted to hang back for potentially slightly cooler conditions that would be closer to those of the evening qualifying session.

At the halfway mark of the 60-minute session, Toro Rosso pairing Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz held first and second place.

Bottas was set to knock Kvyat off top spot when he headed out on supersofts, but he locked up and ran off the circuit at the last corner, ruining his lap.

Instead, Felipe Massa put his Williams fastest with a 1m32.801s, only to be relegated to second by soft-shod Verstappen.

Romain Grosjean then lost the rear of his Haas through Turn 4, spinning into the barrier and losing his nose.

The session was red-flagged, but the delay was only five minutes as Grosjean recovered to the pits without assistance.

Shortly after the restart, Kimi Raikkonen went fastest with a 1m32.785s, despite running wide at the final corner, before being relegated to second by Bottas.

Sebastian Vettel was also out on supersofts, but his first lap was only good enough for fourth after he ran wide exiting Turn 7 before setting what was ultimately the fastest time of the session at his second attempt.

Red Bull held back for much of the session and completed few laps, but both Verstappen and teammate Daniel Ricciardo headed out again in the closing stages.

This allowed Verstappen to go fastest with two-and-a-half minutes remaining, albeit with Hamilton behind him on track and showing strong pace.

But Hamilton ran a little wide at the final corner and could not beat Verstappen despite showing good pace in the first two sectors.

Ricciardo was 0.615s slower than Verstappen’s pace, slotting into seventh place behind Vettel, Bottas, Raikkonen and Massa.

Nico Hulkenberg again showed well in the Renault, lapping 0.739s off the pace to take eighth ahead of Sainz and Kvyat.

Fernando Alonso was the faster of the McLaren’s in 12th, 1.550s off the pace and just six thousandths slower than Force India driver Sergio Perez, with Sauber returnee Pascal Wehrlein just behind him.

Grosjean did manage to return to the track after his crash, but ended up 18th and seven thousandths slower than teammate Kevin Magnussen.

Pos	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	8	1'32.194
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	10	1'32.304	0.110
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	10	1'32.750	0.556
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	13	1'32.754	0.560
5	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	9	1'32.785	0.591
6	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	12	1'32.801	0.607
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	8	1'32.809	0.615
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	9	1'32.933	0.739
9	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Renault	18	1'33.604	1.410
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Renault	11	1'33.744	1.550
11	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	14	1'33.916	1.722
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	10	1'33.922	1.728
13	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	Ferrari	15	1'33.947	1.753
14	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	15	1'33.965	1.771
15	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	15	1'34.027	1.833
16	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	17	1'34.064	1.870
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	13	1'34.198	2.004
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	14	1'34.205	2.011
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	15	1'34.268	2.074
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	11	1'34.417	2.223