Leclerc fastest on final morning of testing in Bahrain

Charles Leclerc capped his pre-season testing with a flourish, clocking the fastest time of Friday morning’s session at the Bahrain International Circuit with a 1’30.811.

Yet, the Ferrari star’s benchmark fell 1.5 seconds shy of the team’s testing peak, a gap underscored by warmer, wind-whipped conditions that proved challenging for competitors on the final day’s opening stint.

The session, however, was anything but smooth, marked by bizarre interruptions that kept the pit lane buzzing.

Over at Haas, Ollie Bearman's car suffered a bodywork failure, resulting in debris on the track and a brief yellow flag.

However, the team's quick response in the pit lane allowed the Briton to return to the session, successfully completing his pre-Australian Grand Prix program.

With just under an hour of running to go, chaos struck when a glass panel plummeted from a gantry near the start/finish line, shattering across the pit straight.

The subsequent red flag halted action for 10 minutes as marshals swept up the debris.

Barely had the green light flickered back on when Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Fernando Alonso roared out – only for another red flag to drop instantly, courtesy of a stray course vehicle.

Once the track finally settled, Leclerc held firm atop the timesheets, wrapping his pre-season alongside seven others as eight teams prepped for a lunchtime driver swap.

Antonelli, the Mercedes protégé, concluded the session in second place, while Lando Norris rounded out the top three for McLaren.

Max Verstappen was fourth fastest, the Dutchman gearing up to extend his Red Bull stint into the afternoon.

Jack Doohan completed a solid morning’s work en route to fifth position, heading the Williams of Alex Albon, the Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar and Alonso, who is expected to step aside for Stroll when the afternoon session begins, if the Canadian is fit and well after feeling under the weather overnight.

Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto completed the fewest laps after several spells in the Swiss outfit’s garage and wound up ninth, while Bearman closed out the field.

The action will resume after the lunchbreak with testing’s final installment, which will run from 1500-1900 local time.

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