Verstappen 'not at full beans' as Red Bull dismiss "irrelevant" lap times

Max Verstappen is adamant he was 'not at full beans' after emerging fastest from pre-season testing in Bahrain to suggest he is the man to beat in next weekend's opening grand prix.

The reigning F1 champion had already set an imposing time on Pirelli's medium C3 compound, only for Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to go two-tenths-of-a-second faster on the C4.

In an RB18 sporting new sculpted sidepods and floor, Verstappen had the final say with a lap of one minute 31.720secs, with Leclerc seven-tenths-of-a-second adrift in third, the duo split by Haas' Mick Schumacher following a late glory run.

Reflecting on his running, Verstappen said: "The car felt alright and we completed the programme we set out to do, so that’s always positive.

"No one gives full beans or goes to qualifying spec at testing, so we can’t read too much into the timing screens.

"The new parts we tested worked well which is what we always hope for.”

Red Bull find baseline after "irrelevant" times

After claiming following Friday's running that Red Bull was "not trying", head of race engineering Guillaume Rocquelin also dismissed the laps from Verstappen and Sergio Perez, who was comfortably quickest in the morning session.

“The lap times are irrelevant," insisted Rocquelin. "Today was more about putting together the lessons we have learned over the past few days.

"It was about going through the process of running different compounds, so that the drivers are happy and that we have a platform to work from for next week.

"There were some slight differences in the tyre allocation between Max and Checo, but generally the idea was the same, to establish a good baseline with which we can start the race weekend and I think we achieved that.”

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