Max Verstappen Tops Final Test Of 2022 F1 Pre Season

Max Verstappen has emerged fastest heading into the 2022 F1 season after topping the final pre-season test in Bahrain.

After three different teams topped the first pre-season test in Barcelona, Spain, last month, this final pre-season test saw further surprises as three other teams emerged quickest across three days of testing in Bahrain.

Verstappen who enters this season as defending champion though finished fastest overall upon the conclusion of the third day of running, yet the pecking order still remains largely unclear following eight separate red flag stoppages.

Now here is a full round-up of all three days of the final pre-season test ahead of the 2022 season.

 

Day One

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was first out on track in the morning session but it was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who instantly set the pace on C4 tyres with 1m 35.953, once the track temperatures began to ramp up with many teams focused on gathering data on their new upgrades.

Up front, Leclerc continued to set the pace as nobody else mounted much of a challenge, with the Monegasque eventually setting the fastest time of the morning session of 1m34.531 with just over two hours left.

Alex Albon and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top three of the morning session for Williams and Aston Martin respectively, just ahead of Sergio Perez, Lewis Hamilton, Esteban Ocon and Guanyu Zhou who rounded out the top seven.

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished eighth ahead of Gasly who predominantly focused on the C2 tyre compound, yet Norris’ morning was curtailed early due to brake issues which limited him to only 21 laps after he replaced Daniel Ricciardo who was suffering from illness.

Haas missed the morning session following freight issues but were first out in the afternoon session as Pietro Fittipaldi headed out for an installation lap, ten minutes after the lights went green following the lunch break.

Leclerc, Vettel, Hamilton, Ocon and Zhou meanwhile all handed over the reins of their cars to their teammates for the afternoon session, whereas Albon, Perez, Norris and Gasly continued in their cars for a full day-long programme.

Nobody however could get near the best lap times of the morning session in the opening 43 minutes before a seven-minute red flag came out to allow for safe removal of debris from Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin which had fallen off.

Shortly after the resumption, Valtteri Bottas was the first of the afternoon runners to disrupt the top nine as he went ninth fastest, before eventually reaching a high of third quickest prior to eventually finishing seventh

Track temperatures meanwhile to fall in the final two hours but it was Gasly who adapted best to the cooler conditions as he went top with 1m 34.010 with 50 minutes left of the session, which he eventually lowered to 1m 33.902 just 24 minutes later.

Carlos Sainz finished second overall ahead of his Ferrari teammate, Leclerc who had ran in the morning session, with Albon finishing fifth ahead of Norris who recovered from brake issues in the morning to finish sixth overall with a late flier in the afternoon session.

Red Bull’s Perez completed more laps than anyone else after completing 137 laps but the Mexican spun on the exit of Turn 8 with just eight minutes left, which brought the day’s running to a premature finish.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Tyre	Laps
1	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1m 33.902	C5	102
2	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.457	C3	52
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.629	C3	64
4	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 0.834	C5	50
5	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 1.168	C4	104
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 1.454	C2	49
7	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	+ 1.593	C3	66
8	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 1.804	C3	39
9	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 2.039	C3	59
10	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 2.075	C3	137
11	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 2.463	C3	62
12	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	+ 2.843	C3	24
13	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 2.866	C2	42
14	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	+ 3.262	C3	54
15	Pietro Fittipaldi	Haas	+ 3.520	Prototype	47

 

Day Two

McLaren again were without Ricciardo due to continuing to feel unwell, which meant that Norris was back in the car and amongst several drivers who headed straight out in the morning session.

Norris proceeded to set the early pace with 1m 38.543 but was soon displaced by Ocon who went top on mediums with 1m 36.472 in a performance run, which saw him eventually finish fastest overall in the morning session with 1m 34.276.

Leclerc finished 0.090s behind Ocon in second place ahead of Max Verstappen with the top three having set their quickest lap times, prior to a 35 minute red flag after Williams’ Latifi suffered a rear-end fire which sent him spinning off at Turn 12.

Once the session resumed, many drivers focused on long runs but Vettel was able to improve to fourth ahead of Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Bottas, Mick Schumacher, Russell and Latifi who rounded out the top ten of the morning session.

Vettel though did experience an off-track stoppage with just 50 minutes left after encountering a technical issue, which forced him to stop on the shorter-track layout which was used for 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix but was able to eventually get back out for the final 15 minutes.

FIA Stewards however opted to wave a random red flag with 14 minutes left in order to enable practice of the red flag restart procedure with Vettel, Bottas and Leclerc all lining up on the grid for a practice restart.

Stewards consequently decided to abort the start and add an extra formation lap in order to allow Verstappen and Russell to join the grid, having both been too slow to join the original grid formation as the pitlane light went red before they exited the pits.

Bottas however stopped with three minutes left which ultimately brought the session to a premature end, having been told to turn off his Alfa Romeo, due to a mechanical issue which became apparent during the second formation lap.

Leclerc, Vettel, Bottas, Schumacher and Russell all made way for their teammates in the afternoon session, with Lance Stroll becoming the first of the afternoon runners to disrupt the overall order as he went 10th then eighth fastest in the opening 36 minutes.

Stroll then leapt up to third on the hour mark but was displaced by Sainz six minutes later only to regain the position just 11 minutes later.

Sainz however moved to the summit with a 1m 33.943 on medium tyres 85 minutes into the session before lowering his benchmark to 1m 33.532 just 22 minutes later, which proved the quickest overall time come the checkered flag.

Ocon meanwhile did an out-of-fuel practice and brought out the first red flag of the afternoon nearly two-and-a-half hours into the session, with the session resuming eight minutes later only for Norris to stop at the pit exit to cause an eight minute red flag just eight minutes later.

Once the session resumed, Verstappen and Hamilton opted for qualifying simulations with the pair finishing second and fourth fastest at the checkered flag behind Sainz with Stroll sat third in-between the two title favourites despite a late red flag to allow for practice of rolling starts.

Haas however received an additional hour of running with three further hours to follow tomorrow with one hour prior to the morning session and two further hours in the evening.

Magnussen consequently took advantage of that additional hour to knock Sainz off the summit with a 1m 33.207, triumphantly marking his first time back in a F1 car since departing at the end of 2020.

Williams meanwhile failed to participate in the afternoon session due to extensive damager caused by Latifi’s fire in the morning session, which meant that Albon failed to get a run out.

Norris meanwhile post-session was confirmed at McLaren for the final day of testing after Ricciardo tested positive for Coronavirus following a PCR test.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Tyre	Laps
1	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1m 33.207	C4	60
2	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.325	C4	60
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.804	C4	86
4	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 0.857	C3	69
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 0.934	C5	47
6	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 1.069	C4	111
7	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 1.159	C3	54
8	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 1.402	C3	59
9	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 2.813	C3	467
10	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 3.595	C3	119
11	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	+ 3.780	C2	25
12	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+ 4.639	C2	23
13	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 5.378	Prototype	66
14	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 6.638	Prototype	12
15	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	+ 6.777	Prototype	48

 

Day Three

Magnussen was first out on track a hour ahead of the official start of the final day of pre-season testing for the second hour of Haas’ four hours of bonus running, with Schumacher driving the last two hours upon completion of the afternoon session.

Once all nine other teams joined the fray, Sainz, Norris and Hamilton traded fastest lap times in the opening six minutes on hard, medium and soft tyres respectively, only for Gasly to go fastest just seven minutes later on on mediums with 1m 36.113.

Norris then went top eight minutes later with 1m 35.504 as teams initially focused on performance running, with Sainz displacing his ex McLaren teammate in the 45th minute with 1m 35.222, only for Zhou to go quicker by 0.086s just five minutes later.

Gasly however had other ideas as he displaced Zhou a minute later with 1m 34.865 which was swiftly bettered by Perez, as the Mexican went top with 1m 34.733.

Zhou soon responded on soft tyres to go top with 1m 34.543 in the 77th minute but was displaced by Perez ten minutes later with the fastest time of the morning session, as the Red Bull driver posted 1m 34.134 only for Zhou to go 0.175s quicker just seconds later.

Perez however retaliated 31 minutes later with the quickest time of the entire test so far with 1m 33.103 as everyone else soon switched focus to race simulations.

FIA stewards however decided to red flag the session with 14 minutes for a practice standing start with Gasly heading Perez, Stroll and Zhou out of the four drivers who ventured out for the practice race start, only for the start to be aborted after Zhou was out of position.

The eventual standing start practice finished positively with no issues as Gasly got a clean start ahead of Perez, Stroll and Zhou.

Perez consequently topped the morning session ahead of Zhou, Gasly, Sainz, Alonso, Norris, Latifi, Stroll, Hamilton and Magnussen, with everyone but Alonso and Norris moving aside for their teammates in the afternoon session.

Once proceedings resumed following the lunch break, nobody really made much impact on the top ten until Vettel went third fastest 46 minutes into the session.

Perez’s lap time of 1m 33.103 however remained largely unthreatened for the opening 90 minutes until Verstappen went fastest on medium tyres in the 94th minute, in which the 24 year-old posted 1m 32.645.

Leclerc however bettered Verstappen’s effort 51 minutes later as he posted 1m 32.415 to go top where he remained unchallenged prior to the only red flag of the day, as Bottas pulled over at Turn 8 with a gearbox issue after just over two-and-a-half-hours.

Once the session resumed ten minutes later, several drivers swiftly headed out for Qualifying simulations with Verstappen opting for C5 tyres, yet the Dutchman managed to spin out of the final corner on his warm-up lap but continued on his way.

That spin however didn’t stop Verstappen from regaining the fastest time with 20 minutes left as he went top with 1m 31.973, before eventually lowering his fastest lap time to 1m 31.720 to finish quickest upon completion of the afternoon session.

Leclerc finished second ahead of Alonso, Russell, Bottas, Tsunoda and Perez who rounded out the top seven ahead of Schumacher at the initial checkered flag, until Schumacher maximised his extended testing allocation of two hours to eventually finish second quickest.

All ten teams will now prepare for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix which gets underway next weekend with Free Practice on Friday 18 March.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Tyre	Laps
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1m 31.720	C5	53
2	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+ 0.521	C4	60
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.695	C4	51
4	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	+ 0.978	C4	122
5	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 1.039	C5	71
6	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	+ 1.265	C3	68
7	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 1.282	C5	57
8	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 1.385	C4	43
9	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 1.471	C2	90
10	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 2.101	C4	81
11	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	+ 2.239	C4	82
12	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	+ 3.145	C4	91
13	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 3.185	C5	68
14	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 3.451	C3	18
15	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 3.914	C3	124
16	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 4.309	C3	53
17	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 4.497	C5	78
18	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 6.896	C2	38