Red Bull’s Sergio Perez topped the final day of 2023 F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Perez looked competitive across both sessions as he finished fourth-fastest in the morning session, before he eventually topped the afternoon session and overall timesheet on C4 tyre compound to set the pace heading into the season opener next weekend.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished 0.359 seconds down in second on the C5 tyre compound, whilst Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas recovered from a suspected gearbox issue to round out the top three – also on the C5 tyre.
F1 will now commence the new season next weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Red Bull looking favourites heading into the campaign.
Morning Session
Having sat out the second day of running, Felipe Drugovich was back in the Aston Martin and the first driver to head out on track, although it was McLaren’s Oscar Piastri set the initial early pace.
Red Bull meanwhile caused a red flag just eight minutes into the session due to an aerodynamic sensor falling off Perez’s car, although the stoppage only lasted four minutes before the session resumed.
Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg soon afterwards went quickest with 1m 33.690 in the 14th minute, which was beaten by Mercedes’ George Russell 15 minutes later as the Brit went 0.005s quicker but Hulkenberg responded with 1m 33.329 in the 41st minute to go back top.
Perez soon afterward displaced Hulkenberg at the top but Russell eventually finished the first hour on top with 1m 31.707 on the C5 tyres, ahead of Pierre Gasly and Perez.
Leclerc meanwhile turned the screws on his Ferrari in the second hour of running as he initially improved to second, whilst Russell lowered his benchmark time to 1m 31.564 in the 68th minute before he found a further 0.122s just 13 minutes later.
Leclerc though opted to do his low-fuel qualifying simulation on the C4 tyres which saw him go fastest with 1m 31.164 in the 85th minute, but found a further 0.140s 12 minutes later to finish the morning quickest with 1m 31.024.
Neither Leclerc nor Russell thereafter were displaced from the top of the timesheets but Drugovich meanwhile continued to find speed, which culminated in the Brazilian ultimately setting the third fastest lap time in the 137th minute on the C5 tyres.
Perez, Gasly, Alex Albon, Hulkenberg, Piastri, Bottas and Nyck de Vries rounded out the top ten.
Bottas meanwhile caused a second red flag of the session towards the end of the third hour of running, as he stopped at Turn 8 with a suspected gearbox issue.
The session once again concluded with another random Virtual Safety Car (VSC) and red flag procedure test, as was the case in both of yesterday’s (24 February) sessions.
Afternoon Session
Only Perez, Bottas and Albon remained in their cars after lunchtime as the seven other teams rotated their drivers.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon though was first out on track and quickly broke his way into the top ten in tenth position, which soon led to several other afternoon runners quickly demoting various morning runners down the timing sheets.
Perez though built upon his morning running and returned to the top three in the 51st minute but was demoted back to fourth in the 98th minute, as Carlos Sainz went second for Ferrari and the Spaniard eventually finished 0.012s shy of Leclerc.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton meanwhile had spent the first half of his running mainly focused on race simulations, yet the Brit looked quick once unleashed onto the two softest tyre compounds as he went third in the 155th minute on C4 tyres.
17 minutes later and Hamilton went top with 1m 30.781 after he switched to the C5 tyre compound, only to be displaced 11 minutes later by Perez who went 0.165s quicker, and Hamilton could only fall 0.048s short as he attempted to top the Mexican.
Perez though consolidated his benchmark time with 50 minutes left as he posted a session-topping 1m 30.305, which proved unbeaten as Hamilton settled for second ahead of Bottas, Leclerc and Sainz who rounded out the overall top five – with Leclerc and Sainz’s times set on C4 tyres.
Behind the top five, Yuki Tsunoda, Kevin Magnussen, Russell, Fernando Alonso and Drugovich rounded out the top ten – with Tsunoda, Magnussen and Alonso’s times set on C4 tyres unlike Russell and Drugovich who set their best lap times on the C5 tyre.
Outside of the top ten, only Albon set his fastest lap on the C5 tyre as the other drivers all set their quickest lap times on the C3 tyre compound.
The session concluded with a practice rolling race start which ran smoothly albeit with several drivers getting feisty in race shape, despite only being a practice run.
Teams will now begin preparations for the 2023 season-opening Grand Prix which takes place in Bahrain next weekend, from 3-5 March.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1m 30.305 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.359 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 0.522 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.719 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.731 |
| 6 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.956 |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 1.076 |
| 8 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 1.137 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 1.145 |
| 10 | Felipe Drugovich | Aston Martin | + 1.770 |
| 11 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 1.855 |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 2.457 |
| 13 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 2.488 |
| 14 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 2.952 |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 3.024 |
| 16 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 3.350 |
| 17 | Nyck de Vries | AlphaTauri | + 7.939 |
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