Bahrain GP: Verstappen outpaces Leclerc by 0.096s in FP3

Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou opened the final one-hour practice session at the Sakhir International Circuit, with Lewis Hamilton also out on track early as he continued to search for solutions for the Mercedes W13's handling issues.

Hamilton was the first driver to set a half decent lap with a 1m34.256s on softs as drivers had to re-adjust to the windy daytime conditions, which are not entirely representative ahead of this evening's qualifying session.

After 20 minutes times finally started to tumble thanks to Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz Jr and Charles Leclerc, split by the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, the leading trio all on soft tyres.

World champion Max Verstappen's first effort - some 25 minutes into the session - was enough to vault to the top of the timesheets, his soft-shod 1m33.035s making him 0.762s quicker than Leclerc.

Leclerc's bid to respond to Verstappen's time ended in the Turn 11 gravel trap. The Monegasque driver reacted to oversteer on exit and as the car gripped back up, he was spat out on the right-hand side.

Leclerc managed to make his way back to the pits without damage, while teammate Sainz jumped Perez for third.

After a mid-session lull, action picked back up in the final 25 minutes. Hamilton brought the session back to life with a time of 1m33.121s on softs, his fastest time of the weekend.

It yielded the Briton second, just 0.086s shy of Verstappen, albeit still a second off Verstappen's FP2 leading time.

Sainz soon demoted Hamilton to third by virtue of a 1m33.053s lap on softs, before George Russell went top with a 1m32.935s lap in the Mercedes fitted with Pirelli's softest compound.

With nearly everyone out on softs at this stage, all eyes were on Verstappen to drive up the pace, but he backed off from a first attempt after locking up the right-front tyre into Turn 1.

Leclerc did carry on to briefly take top with a time of 1m32.640s, putting three tenths on Russell on a lap that he called "not great" on the team radio.

While still lagging behind in the first sector, Verstappen's second attempt was tidy enough to re-take first from Leclerc with a 1m32.544s.

Verstappen's time was good enough to survive a frantic final 10 minutes at Sakhir, heading Leclerc, Perez and Russell.

Sainz was fifth, with Hamilton following in sixth just under six tenths of a second behind his 2021 rival.

Haas showcased its improved form with a promising seventh time for returnee Kevin Magnussen, following 0.9s behind the leaders.

Alfa Romeo also underlined its best of the rest hopes with the eighth and ninth times respectively for Bottas and Zhou.

Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10 for Aston Martin, with McLaren's Lando Norris 11th after another low-key outing for the Woking team.

Nico Hulkenberg, who replaces Sebastian Vettel due to a positive COVID-19 test, took 12th ahead of AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly.

Mick Schumacher was 14th for Haas, ahead of the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo.

Alpine's low-key start continued as neither Fernando Alonso nor Esteban Ocon showed their hand on Pirelli's softest compound. The pair finished 16th and 18th respectively using the mediums.

They were split by the first Williams of Alex Albon, while Albon's teammate Nicholas Latifi was last of the 19 runners, the Grove outfit continuing its worrying pre-season trend.

Yuki Tsunoda didn't make it out due to hydraulic problems on his AlphaTauri.

Qualifying for F1 2022's first grand prix follows at 6pm local Bahrain time, or 3pm GMT.

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	15	1'32.544
2	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	16	1'32.640	0.096
3	Sergio Perez		Red Bull	20	1'32.791	0.247
4	George Russell		Mercedes	19	1'32.935	0.391
5	Carlos Sainz Jr.		Ferrari	20	1'33.053	0.509
6	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	15	1'33.121	0.577
7	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	15	1'33.437	0.893
8	Valtteri Bottas		Alfa Romeo	21	1'33.733	1.189
9	Guanyu Zhou		Alfa Romeo	18	1'33.880	1.336
10	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	14	1'33.920	1.376
11	Lando Norris		McLaren	18	1'33.955	1.411
12	Nico Hulkenberg		Aston Martin	18	1'33.971	1.427
13	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	18	1'34.176	1.632
14	Mick Schumacher		Haas	17	1'34.295	1.751
15	Daniel Ricciardo		McLaren	20	1'34.378	1.834
16	Fernando Alonso		Alpine	15	1'34.628	2.084
17	Alex Albon		Williams	15	1'34.868	2.324
18	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	16	1'34.957	2.413
19	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	14	1'35.667	3.123
20	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	0
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