George Russell went fastest in the final session of Formula 1’s 2025 pre-season testing programme at the Bahrain International Circuit.
The Mercedes driver clocked the quickest time of the afternoon with just six minutes remaining, a 1:29.545s across 91 laps, just 0.021s faster than Max Verstappen, who set 10 laps less.
The reigning World Champion had been top for the majority of the session, bettering his time in the morning session, in which he was fourth-fastest.
His Red Bull team appeared to spend the day experimenting on various areas, sending Verstappen out with flow-vis paint adorned on the RB21 around a third of the way into the session.
Alex Albon was third for Williams with a 1:29.650s, amassing 137 laps. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, with 85 laps under his belt, was fourth with a 1:29.940s.
Pierre Gasly set one lap less than the Australian in his Alpine, and was one place behind with a 1:30.040s.
Lewis Hamilton suffered an as-of-yet unconfirmed issue with his Ferrari, limiting him to just 47 laps, but set the sixth-fastest time – a 1:30.345s.
Yuki Tsunonda was seventh with a 1:30.497s after 87 laps, with Esteban Ocon setting Haas’ fastest time of the whole week, a 1:30.728s, placing him eighth after 103 laps.
Charles Leclerc’s morning time, the fastest, placed him eighth overall, with the second-fastest from Andrea Kimi Antonelli leaving the young Italian 10th overall.
The session was halted early with a red flag, caused by a bizarre incident in which a bus was seen driving along a service road adjacent to the track.
Thankfully, the vehicle quickly exited the area and the cars were soon able to resume the track, the situation possibly being worse if it had made its excursion after dusk descended over the complex.
It follows further unusual reasons to truncate sessions this week, with a power cut causing a delay on Day 1, with this morning’s session also briefly brought to a stop by broken glass dropping onto the tarmac in the pit lane.
READ MORE – F1 2025 Pre-Season Testing Results – Friday PM
