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Sergio Perez’s last outing for Red Bull in the 2021 preseason testing was a good thing, with the Mexican beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to lead the time before Sunday’s lunch break at the Bahrain International Circuit.
In the final hour of racing for the first session of the day, Perez rode on a set of C4 soft tires, to complete the fastest lap of pre-season testing so far in the Red Bull RB16B, a 1m 30.187s – with the Mexican. looked more confident than he had in the car on Saturday, when he had endured a number of moments off track. The only downside for Perez on his last day in the car was a relatively low number of laps, as he only managed 47 laps around Bahrain.
LIVE COVERAGE: Follow all the action from Day 3 of the Bahrain preseason testing
Perez’s session lead lap stoked a promising early effort from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who spent much of the morning with the fastest time in his Ferrari SF21, the Monegasque finishing with a fastest C3 lap of 1m 30.486s in P2.
Lando Norris continued McLaren’s strong opening until 2021, placing third on the C3 tire, a shade within half a second of Perez – with McLaren’s trouble-free preseason testing continuing. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly finished P4, ahead of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine – while Haas’ Mick Schumacher continued his rookie preparations, finishing P6, 1.866s behind with his C3 effort and with 76 laps completed.
Valtteri Bottas continued to look uncomfortable in the Mercedes W12, understeering twice off track at Turn 13 throughout the morning, before finishing seventh – but at least with 80 healthy laps to his credit.
READ MORE: ‘It’s pretty sharp and ruthless’ – Bottas opens up on tough test debut for Mercedes W12
On his very first outing in the Williams FW43B, Russell rode steadily, and apparently without targeting any headline-grabbing times, as he finished P8 – his best lap on the C2 tire.
Kimi Raikkonen of Alfa Romeo, meanwhile, continued his team’s solid and consistent run in this test, completing the most laps of the morning with 91. He finished P9, ahead of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, which seemed to have focused on the long term. pace, as he finished, like Raikkonen, more than five seconds from the beat.
So that was the order halfway through the last day of that three-day 2021 preseason test. All the drivers in the morning session, except Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, and Russell de Williams, have now reached the end of their testing experience, and will soon be in action when the weekend of the Grand Bahrain Awards will begin on March 26.
For others, however, a crucial afternoon session in more representative and cooler conditions awaits them – where we can finally get a concrete idea of how the order looks ahead of the start of the 2021 season. .
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