Sakhir (Bahrain): Max Verstappen completed a clean sweep of all three practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix when he beat defending champion Lewis Hamilton by seven-tenths of a second in the third and final hour ahead of qualifying.
Verstappen shot to the top of the time sheets in his RB16B with a 1m30.577s lap on soft tyres late in the session, eclipsing Hamilton’s existing benchmark for Mercedes, and ensuring the Red Bull racer was fastest in each of the three practice sessions for this, the first race of the year.
Third quickest was Pierre Gasly, who looked competitive throughout for AlphaTauri but was 1.006s off Verstappen’s time by the end of the session.
Fourth-fastest Valtteri Bottas ran wide at Turn 4 numerous times and was one of many carried past the Turn 1 apex by gusts of wind early on. He finished ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who was P5.
Ferrari – who elected not to run on the soft tyres – enjoyed another productive session with Carlos Sainz sixth, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen in P7.
(Source: F1)
