Oscar Piastri topped the final practice session for the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix as McLaren flexed their muscles showing their advantage this weekend.
Piastri set a lap time of 1:31.646 that at some point in the session was over 1.1s faster than the second best with only Lando Norris closing in to six tenths in the end.
The extremely hot conditions meant the teams and drivers were not really excited about running as qualifying would take place under the flood lights in cooler temperatures. The wind also played a role in addition to the lack of grip.
But in the end, and regardless of what their rivals come up with from FP3 till qualifying, McLaren find themselves in a comfortable situation as they are clearly the favorites for a front row lockout come qualifying.
The gap may not remain as huge as it is now as others may find some time in cooler conditions, but the Woking squad should be heading into qualifying with confidence.
Following the McLaren pair was Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari but he was a whopping eighth tenths off the pace.
While George Russell was the closest to the Papaya cars on Friday, he was fourth fastest at the end of FP3, 1.181s away from Piastri.
Kimi Antonelli was fifth fastest behind his teammate and ahead of Pierre Gasly who was sixth in the Alpine as Isack Hadjar was seventh in the Racing Bulls.
Reigning Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen was down in eighth almost 1.4s off the pace while his new teammate, Yuki Tsunoda struggled with the car and was down in 20th.
Carlos Sainz was ninth as Lewis Hamilton completed the top ten in the second Ferrari car.
Buildup towards FP3
McLaren showed they are the team to beat this weekend in Bahrain after the gap they showed they have over their rivals which was in the region half a second.
And it was Mercedes with Russell were the team that came half a second close to the McLaren drivers in the end of the second free practice session on Friday night in Bahrain.
Ferrari were busy getting to understand the major upgrade they have brought to their car but the situation does not seem good for the Reds as Hamilton struggled with the car while Leclerc was better but way off the leaders.
Red Bull have work to do to get their RB21 ready for competition and once again will be relying on Verstappen's prowess to put them in contention as Tsunoda struggled on Friday.
Further down the order, it is close but the Racing Bulls are leading the midfield while Haas - with Bearman - are in it as well with Williams not far off.
The final practice session will once again run in unrepresentative conditions with qualifying taking place after sundown, so different temperatures and track conditions.
FP3 Session Highlights
The session started in clear and hot conditions with track temperatures registering 44 degrees Celsius while air temperature was 33 degrees.
The drivers were not in a hurry to get out track, some of them even not sitting in their cockpits when the green light for FP3 was given.
The first driver to hit the track in the final 60 minutes of practice was Bearman in the Haas, and was soon followed out by Ocon in the sister car.
Soon Hamilton in the Ferrari followed and started his session on the Soft tyres.
Ocon reported that he was not able to go flat in Turn 12 as the car was bouncing. He was running on the Hard Pirelli compounds.
Bearman reported the grip was very bad especially when compared to the night time when the track cooled down.
15 minutes into the session, more drivers made their way out on track as action slowly ramped up for the final practice.
Both Ferraris, Haas, Alpines, Bortoleto, and Tsunoda were out and soon Norris ventured out on track in the McLaren.
Bortoleto suffered from a snap going onto Turn 11 and went into the run-off area. He also had a moment in Turn 8 while Tsunoda reported that the wind has increased.
Verstappen also ran wide at Turn 11 and aborted the lap he was on. He was purple in the first sector. Tsunoda almost lost the car in Turn 8.
Towards the second half of the session, all the drivers were out on track in what has been so far a very quiet session.
Lawson also reported that the wind was making matters tough for the drivers in Turn 11 in particular. We have seen several drivers losing their cars there.
With less than thirty minutes, Hulkenberg brought the Yellow flags out as his car shut down and he was stranded in the run-off area at Turn 8.
The Virtual Safety Car was announced as Hulkenberg was parked next to an access as the marshals came out to push the Sauber off the track as the team told their driver there was no other way to restart the car.
Bortoleto had a snap coming out of Turn 13 and ran wide. He managed to keep his car pointing in the right direction though.
Leclerc soon reported that his left mirror has fallen off. Replay showed that it fell off while on a long run at Turn 14.
Russell later on had a full spin coming out of Turn 10. The Briton was all over the place, locking up, running wide and then spinning.
He radioed that the grip was the least he has experienced in an F1 car.
In the final 15 minutes, the driver bolted on new Soft tyres from some final qualifying runs.
Tsunoda missed his braking into Turn 4 while Norris understeered at Turn 11 and ran wide aborting the lap he was on. Doohan also ran wide at 11.
Tsunoda kept struggling with his car while Albon had a snap at Turn 10 but held it.
Sainz complained to his team that the engine braking on his car was not behaving normally.
Bahrain GP FP3 Classification
Latest News
Loading
![Alonso: In the last corner the [steering] wheel was off](https://r.testifier.nl/Acbs8526SDKI/resizing_type:fill/width:256/height:170/plain/https://s3-newsifier.ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com/grandprix247.com/images/2025-11/alonso-bahrain-2-2025.jpg@webp)
