Mercedes ace strong

Russell sets the last fastest time in Bahrain!

George Russell in the Mercedes

(Bild: Darko Bandic)

George Russell set the fastest lap on the final day of Formula 1 testing in Bahrain!

The Mercedes driver lapped the dry Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir on Friday in 1:29.545 minutes and was 21 thousandths of a second faster than world champion Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari had set the fastest time in the morning, but the Monegasque was only ninth fastest for the day.

The lap times were slower on average than on Thursday in slightly lower temperatures. Friday saw the warmest conditions of the entire three-day test phase. Russell set his fastest lap in the final minutes on a set of C3 tires.

A bus on the race track caused a curious brief interruption in the afternoon. The white shuttle vehicle was chugging along the track in the desert at low speed, as TV pictures showed. In the early session, a pane of glass that had come loose from its mount and shattered on the ground had already triggered a red phase. The series of breakdowns in Sakhir thus continued. There had been a lengthy power failure on Wednesday.

Sainz wants more test days
Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz expressed his dissatisfaction with the number of test days. The Spaniard, who is now director of the GPDA drivers' union, said that he would have liked to have done more laps after his switch from Ferrari. "It feels strange that I had a day and a half and now I have to race," he said. "It doesn't feel like enough, it feels like

very little. Ridiculously little." He would like "eight or ten days", said Sainz, who added that he could also imagine an offsetting of test days on the race track with days on the simulator. The teams could then decide for themselves where and how to deploy their resources.