F1 News
How fast was Verstappen really? 'C4 was used at the fastest moment'
- GPblog.com
If we are to believe Pirelli boss Mario Isola, the tyres held up well during the test in Bahrain but the Italian is not yet able to say what the lap times of the drivers are worth.
Pirelli tyres held up well
"Throughout all three days, all the compounds performed well and no problems such as graining emerged: only light abrasion on the softest compounds," Isola is quoted by The Checkered Flag.
During testing it is always difficult to determine how fast a driver has really been. It's unknown how much fuel the drivers put on the track and if they go to the limit during a run. What is known is that the difference between the C2 and C3 tyre is about half a second.
Verstappen set fastest lap at right moment
Max Verstappen set the fastest lap of all, which he did on the C4 tyre, but Isola can't say clearly how fast that time really was: "The gap between C3 and C4 is bigger than expected, with the C4 driven by many cars when the track was at its fastest," Isola added. How fast the times really are, we will only know during the qualification of the first Grand Prix.
Full times list
| Driver | Time | Tyre | |
| Max Verstappen | 1:28.960 | C4 | |
| Yuki Tsunoda | 1:29.053 | C5 | |
| Carlos Sainz | 1:29.611 | C4 | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 1:29.766 | C5 | |
| Lewis Hamilton | 1:30.025 | C5 | |
| George Russell | 1:30.117 | C5 | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 1:30.144 | C4 | |
| Sergio Perez | 1:30.187 | C4 | |
| Valtteri Bottas | 1:30.289 | C5 | |
| Fernando Alonso | 1:30.318 | C4 | |
| Pierre Gasly | 1:30.413 | C5 | |
| Lance Stroll | 1:30.460 | C5 | |
| Charles Leclerc | 1:30.486 | C3 | |
| Lando Norris | 1:30.586 | C4 | |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | 1:30.760 | C5 | |
| Esteban Ocon | 1:31.146 | C4 | |
| Nikita Mazepin | 1:31.531 | C4 | |
| Nicholas Latifi | 1:31.672 | C4 | |
| Mick Schumacher | 1:32.053 | C3 | |
| Sebastian Vettel | 1:33.742 | Prototype | |
| Roy Nissany | 1:34.789 | C3 |
latest news
