George Russell wraps up Bahrain F1 testing by outdoing Max Verstappen
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Mercedes' George Russell during the final day of F1 pre-season testing at Bahrain's Sakhir circuit on Feb 28.
PHOTO: REUTERS
SAKHIR – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was not too concerned following three less-than-ideal days of Formula One pre-season testing this week at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain.
George Russell struck late on the third day on Feb 28 as he outdid the four-time reigning world champion to post the fastest time in the closing minutes. The Mercedes driver clocked 1min 29.545sec to edge out Verstappen by 0.021sec.
The Briton’s late move under the floodlights meant that Verstappen failed to set the fastest time in any of the winter test days, but the Dutchman insisted that the times might not be a reliable indicator of race speed once the season starts on March 16 in Australia.
“We had a decent day today. There were a few little problems, but overall, we completed quite a bit of what we wanted to do. I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond how we wanted at times, but it is going in the right direction,” he said.
“It is difficult to tell where everyone’s pace is. It’s very difficult to see a starting order for Melbourne across the grid right now. You see that four teams look quite quick, including us, but we didn’t look too much at other teams, we tried to focus on our programme.”
Thai driver Alexander Albon was third fastest for Williams, a day after his new teammate, Spaniard Carlos Sainz, took first with the fastest lap of the three-day session in 1:29.348. Most teams swopped their drivers after the morning session, but Verstappen stayed behind the wheel and drove all the 81 laps recorded by Red Bull during the day.
Williams stuck with Albon who completed 136 laps, the most by any driver over the day.
The Ferraris of Briton Lewis Hamilton and Monegasque Charles Leclerc were sixth and ninth on Feb 28, but recorded the second and third best times over the three days.
Leclerc was fastest in the morning session bizarrely interrupted by a pane of glass falling out of the starter’s box and shattering on the track. That was followed by another red flag in the afternoon when a bus appeared on the run-off area as some cars were on the track.
Hamilton was cautiously optimistic after his first outing with his new team. The seven-time world champion said: “This is the most positive feeling I’ve had for a long time. We’ve built a really good foundation but these guys out there look really competitive, it looks very close.”
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen was second fastest during the final day of testing in Bahrain.
Some teams, such as McLaren, the reigning constructors’ champions, did little to test lap speed and may have deliberately concealed their full potential from rivals. The British team seemed serene over the three days of testing.
“We were able to work through our plan and collect more data. We will now put it all together and look through everything we’ve completed over the last few days to make sure we’re ready for Melbourne,” British driver Lando Norris told the team website.
The teams have two weeks to analyse the data and tweak their set-ups ahead of the green light in Australia. AFP, REUTERS
