Leclerc at the head of Vettel to retain the advantage of Ferrari before qualifying | Formula 1®

Ferrari wondered if she could maintain her advantage on Friday (about 0.6 seconds in free practice 2) until Saturday in Bahrain. At first sight, Charles Leclerc finished free practice 3 more than seven tenths faster than the next non-Ferrari rider, with Sebastian Vettel only 0.169 seconds behind his teammate.

With the usual caveat that the FP3 is not representative of the lenient conditions the drivers will have to face in qualifying and the race, it was nevertheless an excellent Ferrari performance before the qualification, the Leclerc's lap placing him 0.765 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in third. .

Mercedes looked confident to be able to reduce the gap with Ferrari during qualifying. Of course, they still could, but it seemed like an unfortunate session for the team, Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas seeming to have trouble handling the handling of their W10 to finish respectively P3 and P4.

Behind them, Romain Grosjean demonstrated that Haas had done his homework overnight to rank fifth in the US team. Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg continued his momentum as a driver of the Bahrain International Circuit (6th after the FP2 qualifying simulations yesterday), and his new team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, could not qualify in the seven tenths of the German, ending up in P16.

It was also a good session for Lando Norris in the Renault engine McLaren. The rookie continues to prove that he deserves his place in the F1 category by placing seventh, ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull lead pack (Pierre Gasly finishing a disappointing P12 while he continues to try to get comfortable in the RB15) and his teammate Norris & # 39; McLaren, Carlos Sainz, in ninth place. Daniil Kvyat's Toro Rosso completes the top 10.

Thus, it seems that Mercedes and Red Bull have everything to do to agree with their Italian rivals. At dawn, turn on the engines and see what happens during qualifying.