Charles Leclerc on top as cracks begin to show on final day of testing

Leclerc, Bahrain, testing, 2023, Ferrari — Photo: © LAT Images

Pre-season testing

Leclerc on top as cracks begin to show on final day of testing

The Ferrari driver finished ahead of George Russell and Felipe Drugovich on the final morning of the test

Ewan Gale

Saturday 25 February 2023 12:15 Updated: 18:55

Charles Leclerc topped the final morning of F1's Bahrain pre-season test as issues began to show across the grid.

The Ferrari driver set a best time of one minute, 31.024secs to head George Russell's Mercedes.

As ever, times were largely unrepresentative with different compounds of tyres being used as well as fuel loads, engine modes and set-ups.

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In a session where the focus largely switched to lengthy race runs, Leclerc completed his lap on the C4 tyre, a step softer than the allocated soft compound for the first race of the year next weekend.

The session wasn't completely smooth for the Monégasque, who was forced to abort a test of a new high-downforce rear wing when the SF-23 developed a DRS fault.

Russell and the rest of the field

Russell was back in the W14 after suffering a hydraulic failure during the second day, and made up for lost time with 84 laps for Mercedes.

Aston Martin's seemingly impressive test continued with Felipe Drugovich third quickest, also on the C5 tyre for his fastest time.

The Brazilian will hand back over to Fernando Alonso for the afternoon.

Sergio Perez triggered the first red flag of the day when a sensor fell off the back of his Red Bull but the Mexican backed up his team's calm start to the year by going no softer than the C3 compound and finishing fourth fastest.

Crucially, Red Bull looks to be a step ahead of Ferrari on high-fuel runs with the Scuderia's tyre wear again suspect.

Pierre Gasly completed the morning fifth for Alpine by adding another half-century of laps to his name, with Williams continuing its strong test with Alex Albon in sixth.

Nico Hulkenberg ended his week seventh for Haas with McLaren's Oscar Piastri behind.

The Woking-based outfit again lost track time with temporary fixes being made to the wheel brows and cake tins.

Valtteri Bottas completed plenty of laps before bringing out the second red-flag period of the day when suffering a suspected gearbox issue at turn eight and putting the rest of his test for Alfa Romeo in jeopardy.

Nyck de Vries finished slowest of the 10 drivers, though completed 87 laps for AlphaTauri.