Verstappen was by far the fastest on Saturday’s third and final day of testing in Bahrain, even though he didn’t even go ‘to full throttle’, as the Red Bull Racing driver himself said. “The car feels good and I was able to complete the desired program, so that’s positive. But it doesn’t make much sense to look at the lap times, because nobody has gone full throttle yet,” said the world champion after 53 laps in the new Red Bull, making him the fastest driver on the field in three days.
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“The new parts that were on the car today worked well and of course you hope for that. Compared to the first days of testing in Barcelona, we have made the car faster.”
Despite a revolutionary new car, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes showed a lot less and spoke of a difficult test itself. Yet Verstappen refuses to count himself rich. “Because that’s how it always goes, isn’t it? When someone else does it right, they immediately feel like: oh, we’re not the favorite† And then suddenly: well, we managed to turn it around in a week, not normal. Thank you to the factory and all the people there† Last year there were also concerns at Mercedes during the test days, but in the end they were still very strong.”
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Bahrain Grand Prix Program
- Friday 1 pm: first free practice
- Friday 4 pm: second free practice
- Saturday 1 pm: third free practice
- Saturday 4 p.m.: qualifying
- Sunday 4 pm: race