Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the final day of Formula One’s pre-season test, as teams finetuned their cars for the 2021 season.
Verstappen dominated the afternoon session with little trouble as he eventually set a 1m 28.960 on C4 tyre compound to finish pre-season testing as favourite heading into the new season.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda spent the early part of the afternoon session focused on long runs before unleashing his one lap pace in the final hour, culminating in the second fastest lap time of 1m 29.053 on C5 tyre compound.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz recovered from a hydraulic issue to finish third fastest on the C4 tyres ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Williams’ George Russell who set their best times on the C5 tyre.
McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was seventh quickest ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who topped the morning session for Red Bull with 1m 30.187.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso finished ninth quickest ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris who were 10th and 11th fastest for Ferrari and McLaren respectively, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who finished 12th quickest overall today.
Esteban Ocon was 13th fastest for Alpine ahead of Haas’ Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher as Valtteri Bottas finished slowest overall out of those who set competitive times in 16th.
Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll were slowest overall after encountering further reliability issues, which ultimately curtailed Vettel’s running early in the afternoon session.
Here are full times from the final day of F1’s pre-season test with the season properly commencing from 26-28 March in Bahrain.
| Position | Driver | Time | Tyre |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | 1m 28.960 | C4 |
| 2 | Yuki Tsunoda | 1m 29.053 | C5 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | 1m 29.611 | C4 |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | 1m 29.766 | C5 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | 1m 30.025 | C5 |
| 6 | George Russell | 1m 30.117 | C5 |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | 1m 30.144 | C4 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | 1m 30.187 | C4 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | 1m 30.318 | C4 |
| 10 | Charles Leclerc | 1m 30.486 | C3 |
| 11 | Lando Norris | 1m 30.661 | C3 |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | 1m 30.828 | C4 |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | 1m 31.310 | C3 |
| 14 | Nikita Mazepin | 1m 31.531 | C4 |
| 15 | Mick Schumacher | 1m 32.053 | C3 |
| 16 | Valtteri Bottas | 1m 32.406 | C2 |
| 17 | Sebastian Vettel | 1m 35.041 | C3 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | 1m 36.100 | C3 |
Verstappen Looks The Man to Beat in 2021
With pre-season testing now over, Max Verstappen looks like he will be the driver to beat this season, although we don’t how much Mercedes have been sandbagging throughout all three days of testing in terms of fuel loads and upgrade potential despite Hamilton finishing fifth overall on combined times.
Add in the fact that everyone set their best overall lap times across the weekend on different compounds coupled with absence of fuel data on top of only three days of testing, it is very difficult to predict a true pecking order other than Verstappen and Red Bull do look closer to Red Bull if not faster.
As for the midfield fight between McLaren, Aston Martin, Alpine, Ferrari and AlphaTauri, it looks like McLaren, Ferrari, Alpine and AlphaTauri will be much closer this season with Aston Martin potentially outsiders unless they can quickly sort out their reliability issues that affected them in this test.
Williams meanwhile look to have taken a huge step forward and Alfa Romeo will benefit from Ferrari’s improved power unit package, meaning that those two should be closer in competition this season whilst Haas look likely to be this season’s wooden spoon team given their focus is already on 2022.
Now here is a full look at how the pecking order looks using fastest laps of each driver from across weekend.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | Tyre | Day |
| 1 | Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 28.960 | C4 | 3 |
| 2 | Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1m 29.053 | C5 | 3 |
| 3 | Sainz | Ferrari | 1m 29.611 | C4 | 3 |
| 4 | Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1m 29.766 | C5 | 3 |
| 5 | Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m 30.025 | C5 | 3 |
| 6 | Russell | Williams | 1m 30.117 | C5 | 3 |
| 7 | Ricciardo | McLaren | 1m 30.144 | C4 | 3 |
| 8 | Perez | Red Bull | 1m 30.187 | C4 | 3 |
| 9 | Bottas | Mercedes | 1m 30.289 | C4 | 2 |
| 10 | Alonso | Alpine | 1m 30.318 | C3 | 3 |
| 11 | Stroll | Aston Martin | 1m 30.460 | C5 | 2 |
| 12 | Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m 30.486 | C3 | 3 |
| 13 | Norris | McLaren | 1m 30.661 | C3 | 3 |
| 14 | Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1m 30.760 | C5 | 2 |
| 15 | Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1m 30.828 | C4 | 3 |
| 16 | Ocon | Alpine | 1m 31.146 | C4 | 1 |
| 17 | Mazepin | Haas | 1m 31.531 | C4 | 3 |
| 18 | Latifi | Williams | 1m 31.672 | C4 | 2 |
| 19 | Schumacher | Haas | 1m 32.053 | C3 | 3 |
| 20 | Vettel | Aston Martin | 1m 33.742 | C3 Prototype | 1 |
| 21 | Nissany* | Williams | 1m 34.789 | C3 | 1 |
*Roy Nissany – Williams Test Driver.
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