Red Bull celebrates 'a very successful end to Bahrain test'

Red Bull may have been trying to play down their strong performance in three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain, but it was hard for them to hide their delight about the way things had gone.

Sergio Perez was on driving duties all day on Saturday, and ended up with the fastest time of 1:30.305s. That was quicker than the pole time set by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc for last year's Bahrain GP which had been held in similar twilight conditions under the floodlights.

In total, Perez completed 133 laps of the 15 turn, 5.412km circuit which was the second-most of anyone today, meaning the reliability of the RB19 was also looking strong - although Perez did cause the first red flag today when a sensor came lose and was deposited on the track.

All in all, it's everything that the team's rivals didn't want to hear.

"The last few days have been pretty intense," Perez said after the chequered flag for today's track activity. "Testing is very short, so it is very important to get the maximum out of it.

"Testing in Bahrain is very difficult because the track is changing every time you go out, the tarmac is very rough and just in general it’s varying condition," he pointed out. "But overall it worked really well, we got a good understanding of our car.

"I think we did the most we could today. We did a lot of analysis on set-up and tyre choice. We ran without any big problems, got a lot of laps in, and had good reliability in general.

• Read also: Perez beats Hamilton on final day of Bahrain testing

"The team back in Milton Keynes have done a tremendous job," he added. "We have a good paced car and certainly think we can work on that more."

It puts Red Bull in a strong position for next week's Bahrain Grand prix, but Perez is taking nothing for granted. "We'll only find out next week where we really are in terms of pace because over testing."

Red Bull's head of race engineering Gianpiero Lambiase was also doing his best to play down his happiness with how the three days had gone. “A very successful end to the test with another day of uninterrupted running," he commented.

"Checo was able to complete a variety of test items, including a chance to get a feel for the car under conditions closer to qualifying and the race, which was important for his preparation.

"It has been a positive three days for the team but there are always areas for improvement, and the focus will be on trying to extract more performance gains before next week.

"The start of the season is now upon us, and we have just a handful of days to analyse all of the data collected," he added.

The drivers will return to the track on Friday for the first free practice season on the 2023 season, with the Bahrain GP itself set to take place on Sunday March 5.

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