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Sakhir (Bahrain) (AFP) – Testing at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit led to a clear advantage for Red Bull’s defending Dutch driver Max Verstappen, and to put Ferrari in the favorites with extreme caution and the pessimism of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen topped the list of the fastest total times in the three-day testing that ended on Saturday, clocking 1:31.720, ahead of Haas’ German Mick Schumacher, son of Formula One legend Michael, with 1:32.241, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc of Monaco came third. (1:32.415 d.).
Veteran Fernando Alonso (Albin) scored the fourth best time (1:32.698 d.) in front of the new British Mercedes driver George Russell (1:32.759 d.).
And “Sir” Hamilton was satisfied with the sixteenth place, regarding 3 seconds behind, as he recorded on the second day of testing a time, which is the fastest for him, with 1:34,141 minutes.
These differences can be linked to the tire choice on the last day of testing, where Verstappen and Russell preferred to put their cars on softer and faster tires within one lap, compared to a lower score for the Ferrari drivers Leclerc and Albin Alonso.
The Mercedes team surprised everyone following participating in the tests with a car with an “extreme” design for the “silver arrows” side section, which raised more than one question mark, especially in light of the decline in results.
“At the moment, I don’t think we are going to fight for victory, but the car has the ability to reach the desired goal,” Hamilton warned during a press conference.
In turn, French driver Pierre Gasly confirmed what the seven-times world champion said regarding the difficulty of controlling Mercedes, and that he saw Hamilton “struggling”, and believed that Mercedes “has a little work to fight for the front places.”
“Next week (during the Bahrain Grand Prix on the 20th of this month), we will do a much better performance at our pace but I think the fans will be surprised, maybe…” added Hamilton, who has been a six-time champion with Mercedes since 2014.
“People keep asking if we’re underestimating ourselves or not, but this year it’s a little different,” added the Briton, who lost the world title last year to Verstappen on the final lap of the final round at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
Hamilton praised the performance of Ferrari, who worked so hard to design a fast and reliable Formula One car following two difficult years.
In the same context, Leclerc said regarding the performance of the “Wild Horse”: “It was definitely one of the easiest tests I did before the season. We didn’t have big problems.”
“Especially in a new program like this, you always expect to find obstacles, and so far apart from the problem of the unexpected adverse impact of drastic changes in terms of aerodynamics, which is always a problem in certain circumstances, it was very clear and we were able to continue to develop.”
Leclerc downplayed the importance of the results achieved, when he spoke of the recorded times, saying, “It seems that all times are very close at one time or another.”
“We know how much margin we have but we have no idea how much others are hiding their capabilities. That’s why we have to be careful. It’s good to be on top but that doesn’t mean anything at the moment.”
On the other hand, the McLaren team, which appears to be in continuous progress since 2019, also emerged, as it shone in Bahrain, following promising first experiences in Barcelona in February.
“Here (in Bahrain) we had a number of problems that limited the number of laps we did, especially in the long laps,” British driver Lando Norris said.
“So we are very far from where we want to be, where we need to be…”.
The British yard also received a moral blow by not participating in the second Australian driver, Daniel Ricciardo, in the trials due to his infection with the Corona virus.
Nevertheless, the quarantine period for the Australian will end before the Bahrain race, the first round of the championship, which begins next week.
© 2022 AFP
