The final day of testing came to an end in Bahrain with Max Verstappen topping the times, from Alpha Tauri driver Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari. Verstappen will take home the fastest lap of the whole testing weekend, with both of the Red Bull's finishing in the top 10.
The session was also subject to some late drama, as Sainz also came to blows with Kimi Raikonnen, as the two made contact on the in-lap at the end of testing itself. The Spanish driver looked to overtake the Finn at the end of the back straight and made contact with the Alfa Romeo.
Slightly Quicker start
The final session of 2021 testing had a quicker start than previous sessions, with five cars immediately taking to track to make the most of the little time left. Fernando Alonso was the first man to set a lap time as the afternoon hit Bahrain.
McLaren continued an impressive run, with Daniel Ricciardo putting the car fifth in the early stages, leaving both cars in the top five. The Australian would later go better, going third and pushing Lando Norris down to fourth place for the day.
Mercedes and Aston Struggle for time
Mercedes took another hour out of the running to complete the driver swap and get the car set up, similar to what they have done for the last two days. When Lewis Hamilton did take to track, the car looked to be a handful, with him having a moment at turn one on his first timed lap.
It has emerged that Mercedes were the only team not to participate in a shakedown, which could explain the lack of sharpness seen throughout the weekend. The session would be epitomized by Hamilton spinning the car on the exit of the final corner, flat-spotting all four tires.
Newcomers Aston Martin would have also hoped for a little more time during the final day, as they were rarely seen outside of the garage. On top of this, they were also confined to the bottom of the timing sheets. Plenty of speculation surrounding the team having issues, however, there is still plenty of time before the lights go out in a fortnights time.
The Charging Red Bull Family
With a little under two hours left of the session, Verstappen managed to make It a Red Bull one-two at the top of the timings, as he submitted a time of 1:29.942, breaking the 1:30.00 barrier for the first time today. He forced his new teammate Perez down to second place, despite his quick time this morning.
Ricciardo would go on to split the two charging red bulls by a narrow margin later in the session, alongside setting the quickest first sector of anyone. As the session entered the last hour, Ricciardo would be displaced once again by the Alpha Tauri of Tsunoda, the Japanese rookie putting in a solid time for his new team.
He would better that half an hour later, as he managed to pass Verstappen's fastest time, only to be outdone by Raikonnen three car lengths later. Both Tsunoda and Verstappen would go on to pass Raikkonen again, with Tsunoda going quicker once again than the Dutchman.
King Of The Laps
Raikkonen and George Russell would accumulate the most laps in the final session, with both drivers surpassing the 15 0 lap mark. Russell would be making the most of the little time that he had in the 2021 car, with Williams test driver Roy Nissany in the car on Friday and Nicholas Latifi in the car yesterday, the Sunday sessions would be the Brit's first shot in the car.
Veteran Raikkonen would top the session just after the hour mark, on top of surpassing 150 laps, as the Finn donned the C5 tires in order to push the limit of the Alfa Romeo.