Piastri and Norris set the pace in Bahrain

Oscar Piastri was the fastest in the final free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix, recording an impressive time of 1:31.646. The Australian driver completed a flawless lap that highlighted the overwhelming gap between the McLarens and the rest of the field. His teammate, Lando Norris, took the second-fastest time, consolidating the Woking team's dominance. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc completed the top three.

Photo: Mclaren

The final free practice session in Bahrain was crucial for teams such as Red Bull, Ferrari, Haas, Sauber, and Williams, who needed to make the most of their track time to gather valuable information on their cars, especially after a difficult day in the previous sessions.

As practice progressed, drivers began to take to the track for qualifying simulations. McLaren was one of the most active teams, testing different setups ahead of qualifying, as was much of the field.

The session had a tense moment when Nico Hülkenberg suffered an incident: his car shut down in the middle of the track, causing a temporary yellow flag. However, the German driver managed to retire the car under his own power, and the team later confirmed that the problem was due to a hydraulic failure.

In the time trial leading up to qualifying, Oscar Piastri set the fastest time of the session on his first attempt with new soft tires, setting a record in every sector and demonstrating McLaren's dominance.

His teammate, Lando Norris, had a more difficult start: on his first attempt, he went off the track and lost the lap. However, he tried again with the same set of used tires, which meant less grip and greater degradation. Even so, he managed to set the second-fastest time of the session.

This detail is especially relevant because, although Piastri finished on top with a gap of 0.0686 seconds over Norris, the Briton achieved that time on tires in worse condition. Had he not made that small mistake on his first attempt, it's very likely his lap would have been equal to or even faster than his teammate's, suggesting that the potential of both McLarens is practically on par.

Charles Leclerc took third place, but more than 0.834 seconds behind Oscar Piastri, highlighting the significant gap McLaren managed to establish over the rest of the teams during this qualifying simulation.

Behind the Ferrari driver were George Russell, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Pierre Gasly, Isack Hadjar, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, and Lewis Hamilton, all with very close times. This closeness in the times shows that, while McLaren appears to have made a step forward, the fight in the midfield is tighter than ever.

It's important to note that the track conditions during this practice session are very different from those we'll see in qualifying and the race. The times recorded in this session are not completely representative, as the track temperature was considerably higher.

During qualifying, both the asphalt and ambient temperatures will be lower, which could even out the conditions for all teams, including McLaren. This opens the door to much smaller performance gaps and closer competition at the top of the standings.