Formula 1: Red Bull confirms its favoritism with the best time of the preseason

In six days, in the same place, the Formula 1 will put first after 105 days. Fans look forward to a season where the dominance of Red Bull not be as overwhelming as the two-time championship’s 15 wins of the year Max Verstappen. But the tests in Bahrain did not leave much room for illusions because this Saturday Sergius Czech Pérez had the best time of the preseason.

With the Dutch Verstappen as a spectator, after leading (and dominating) the two sessions on Friday and also going out on Saturday afternoon only behind the Chinese Guanyu Zhou, it was his teammate who with the C4 tire in the end of the workout and with a time of 1m30s305 he overtook what he had achieved Lewis Hamilton (1:30.781) with a softer rubber, the C5.

Neither the C4 nor the C5 will be able to take them next week – the range will go from the C1 to the C3 – on that same circuit in the first round of the World Cup, the Bahrain Grand Prix, but Red Bull has demonstrated, in case there is C ‘was some doubt, which is again the rival to beat.

Pérez also led the timetable with a better time than the one that took pole position last season (1:30.558) to Monaco charles leclerc (Ferrari), fourth, also with C4, after dominating the morning session this Saturday with what had been the best time up to that moment (1:31.024).

Between the Mexican, who completed the most laps -133- and Leclerc’s Ferrari, came Hamilton, who gave Mercedes prestige after two discrete days, at least one lap, and the Finn Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), who suffered a mechanical failure in the morning which his team resolved in time to run for three and a half hours in the afternoon.

The Spanish Charles Sainzwho competed in the evening session, obtained the fifth fastest time (1:31.036), while Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) focused on racing simulationcoinciding with the schedule that will have on Sunday next week.

The two-time Asturian champion was clockwork when it came to testing race pace, he put on the tires he will be able to wear in the first Grand Prix of the season and achieved less tire degradation than expected. He started with C3, then C1 -hard- and finally C2. Chasing the time, he finished ninth (1:31.450).

Ahead of the Aston Martin driver were the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri), the Danish Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and the British George Russell (Mercedes), second in the morning with the C5 compound and in the afternoon relegated to eighth position of the day.

The morning podium, with up to 43 degrees on the asphalt of the Sakhir circuit, was completed by the Brazilian Philip Drugovich (1:32.075), which it replaces at Aston Martin Lance Strollwho suffered a bicycle accident and could miss the start of the season.

The day was once again a bad one for McLaren. The cracks in the mudguards of the front wheel have reappeared, which needed to be reinforced and which conditioned the Australian’s session Oscar Piastri -44 laps- in the morning and to the British Lando Norris -37 laps- in the afternoon. Neither has been able to use soft tires due to these problems and both are leaving with a lot of work to do.

For its part, the Dutch nyck devries (Alpha Tauri) was the one who lapped the most (87 laps, four more than Russell) and spun which did not prevent him from continuing in action in the penultimate free practice, a week before the cars showed their real performance. given that in the tests there are many variables that determine the times such as the fuel load, the tires chosen and the configuration of the cars.

Furthermore, in the last minutes of both sessions, various race situations were tested, such as the virtual safety car.

With information from EFE