Piastri crushes all comers in final Bahrain Grand Prix practice

Oscar Piastri set a blistering pace in final practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix to top the session ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Piastri’s final flying lap on softs was peerless despite scorching-hot and blustery conditions in Sakhir, the Australian collecting three purple sectors to set the benchmark at 1m31.646s. It was a little more than 1.1s quicker than his best time from FP2, when the cooler night-time conditions were far more conducive to performance. The ambient temperature started at 91 degrees F for final practice, with the track surface temperature soaring to 111 F — conditions unrepresentative of post-sunset qualifying and race sessions, lending limited significance to the results. In the blazing desert sun the Bahrain circuit yielded little grip. After looping his car at Turn 10, George Russell said it was the last amount of grip he’d ever had in Formula 1. Norris was caught out by the slippery conditions halfway around his first flying lap, when a mistake at Turn 11 sent him sailing off the road, perhaps thanks also to a tailwind down the back straight. The Briton pitted and re-attempted the lap on used softs but found himself 0.668s adrift, his deficit roughly equal across the three sectors. Norris’s lap was 1.6s slower than his best from Friday night, which was roughly in line with the deficit experienced by most drivers. Charles Leclerc was the fastest non-McLaren driver in the field, but even his chunky 0.834s deficit flattered hithe Ferrari driver for having been set in the final six minutes of the hour when the track was beginning to cool, and with a second set of new soft tires. Mercedes teammates Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were closely matched in fourth and fifth but were 1.1s and 1.2s off the pace respectively. Pierre Gasly was a surprise sixth for Alpine, but even the Frenchman couldn’t help but wonder about Piastri’s advantage. “I can’t believe how fast these McLarens are at the moment,” he radioed after setting his fastest time 1.3s slower than the leading Australian. Isack Hadjar was the quickest Red Bull-backed driver for the second session in a row, the Racing Bulls driver edging Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen by 0.004s. Carlos Sainz complained of engine braking on his way to ninth and 1.4s off the pace, with Lewis Hamilton completing the top 10 for Ferrari just 0.019s further back. Esteban Ocon complained early in the session that he couldn’t take Turn 12 at full throttle owing to his Haas car bouncing. He ended up 1.6s off the pace and 0.1s quicker the Jack Doohan. Liam Lawson was 13th ahead of Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Oliver Bearman, Lance Stroll and Gabriel Bortoleto. Nico Hulkenberg set only seven laps before his car stopped on track at Turn 8 and had to be recovered by the marshals under cover of a virtual safety car. Yuki Tsunoda had another difficult session on his way to 20th. The Red Bull Racing driver spent the entire session using the slow hard tire bar a single run on softs, when he struggled to piece together a clean lap.