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Max Verstappen, defender of the title in the next Formula 1 World Championship, finished the pre-season tests at the Sakhir circuit as he did last season, in first position. The Dutch driver topped the timesheets on the final day of testing before Mick Schumacher’s Haas completed his solo extra two hours.
The reigning champion had some problems but finally managed to stop the clock with a time of 1:31.720, the best of the day and of the tests in Bahrain. Charles Leclerc, at the wheel of his Ferrari, finished in second place, 0.695 seconds behind, while the Spaniard Fernando Alonso he managed to put the Alpine in third position following setting his fastest lap in the closing minutes of the session.
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Fernando Alonso marks the THIRD fastest time in a SPECTACULAR lap ????#F1Testing ???? pic.twitter.com/HKQKXbYAyP
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) March 12, 2022
The Asturian driver, two-time world champion, signed the best day of practice for the French team, shooting up to 122 laps and stealing a position on the podium of the day from George Russell’s Mercedes. In the morning, his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who assured that they are not ready to fight for victory in the first race of the course, was seventeenth following completing 78 laps in the morning.
The times of Alpine with Alonso at the wheel they represent an improvement compared to other sessions and show that the Spaniard’s car is capable of maintaining a good race pace, as well as setting the best top speed in various sectors of the track with 317 km/h.
After the tests, and with the start of the 2022 World Cup just around the corner, it will soon be seen which teams have bluffed or focused on the tests and where the real performance of each one is.
Bahrain, the same scene of these tests, will host the first Grand Prix of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship next weekend.