Aston Martin veteran Fernando Alonso has turned back the clock to again top the timesheets in the final practice before Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying while Australia’s new boy Oscar Piastri enjoyed his first top-10 finish.
The 21-year-old Piastri wasn’t even born when Alonso made his grand prix debut in Melbourne in 2001 but the pair have been showing that class really is permanent at both ends of the age scale.
Alonso narrowly beat Red Bull’s champion Max Verstappen, Spain’s two-time world champion on Saturday, clocking 1 minute 32.340 seconds around the Bahrain International Circuit.
He beat the Dutchman by a mere 0.005 seconds but his second top spot from three practice sessions demonstrated that Aston Martin may take some beating in qualifying later on Saturday.
Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez was third, while Mercedes showed improvement with Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth quickest and George Russell sixth. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc split them in fifth.
Piastri, who had a challenging opening day to his F1 career on Friday after coming off the track twice, is a quick learner and looked more confident on Saturday as he even outpaced his more experienced McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
The Melbourne man clocked 1:33.045 to finish ninth fastest, a distinct improvement on his 12th and 15th place finishes on Friday.
Norris, in contrast, could only manage 1:33.202 to lie in 13th place.
Lance Stroll, in the other Aston Martin, came in seventh even though he’s clarly been in discomfort following his recent wrist trouble that forced him to miss pre-season testing last week.
Discussion about this post