Sebastian Vettel took his first pole position of 2017, as Kimi Raikkonen’s second place in qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix saw Ferrari score it’s first front-row lock-out since the French Grand Prix of 2008.

All through practice at the Sochi Autodrom, Ferrari had the edge over Mercedes but in opening qualifying session Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton claimed the top two positions and in Q2 Bottas again took P1 to signal that the Silver Arrows were set to once again stamp their authority on the battle for grid supremacy.

That eventuality failed to materialise, however, as first Raikkonen and then Vettel stepped up the pace and stole ahead of the Mercedes in Q3. After the first runs Raikkonen led with a lap of 1:33.253, three hundredths of a second ahead of Bottas. Vettel who later admitted to a scrappy first flyer was third ahead of Vettel.

The German corrected the errors in a supremely tense final run, however. The four-time champion improved and jumped to P1. First across the line, he was then forced to wait as his rivals completed their laps.

“I knew it would be tight,” said Vettel of this 47^th career pole position. “I immediately and asked about everybody else, ‘tell me about the others’. My race engineer Ricardo told me ‘they are closing the lap, they are closing the lap’. I said: ‘Yeah, let me know, let me know, how are the sectors, how are the split times?’ The first one I got was Valtteri who didn’t manage to improve and then when I got the message that we got it, I was over the moon.”

In the end Vettel was the only one of the top four to improve on his final run, and so Raikkonen finished second ahead of Bottas, while an oddly muted session for Lewis Hamilton saw the Briton qualify fourth, almost half a second behind his team-mate.

Behind the Mercedes cars, Daniel Ricciardo was fifth for Red Bull Racing. As with the front four the Australian failed to improve on his opening Q3 run. His margin to rivals behind was good enough, however, to keep him at the front of row three. Team-mate Max’s Verstappen’s opening-run time was not as secure, however, and in the last moments of the session, Williams’ Felipe Massa stole in with a lap of 1:35.110 to push the Dutchman to P7.

“I was actually very poor after Q2,” said Verstappen. “I had two sets [of tyres] in Q3, but I was already complaining in Q2 the last sector I was losing a lot of grip under braking into Turn 13, so I was losing the rear.

“And then you overheat the tyres and everything gets worse and worse. And with the two sets in Q3 it got worse again.

“Normally with less fuel in the car you should do better, but I went slower so that's not the way to go. And that results in this seventh on the grid.”

Verstappen will line up beside Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg on row four, while row five will feature the Force India’s of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon.

Eleventh place in the session went to Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, with Williams Lance Stroll 13^th ahead of the second Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat in P13. The three were separated by just two hundredths of a second. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was the last man eliminated in Q2 in 15^th.

Jolyon Palmer was 16^th. The Renault driver crashed out at the end of Q1 when he caught too much of a kerb in Turn 4 and was pitched into the barriers on the opposite of the track. He was eliminated ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, the Saubers of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson and the second Haas of Romain Grosjean. Vandoore, though, will start from the back of the grid as he is due to take an engine-related grid penalty.

2017 Russian Grand Prix – Qualifying

1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:33.194s -
2 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:33.253s 0.059s
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:33.289s 0.095s
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.767s 0.573s
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:34.905s 1.711s
6 Felipe Massa Williams 1:35.110s 1.916s
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:35.161s 1.967s
8 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:35.285s 2.091s
9 Sergio Perez Force India 1:35.337s 2.143s
10 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:35.430s 2.236s
11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:35.948s -
12 Lance Stroll Williams 1:35.964s -
13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:35.968s -
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:36.017s -
15 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:36.660s -
16 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:36.462s -
17 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 1:37.332s -
18 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:37.507s -
19 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:37.620s -
20 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:37.070s -

Just two days after the Bahrain Grand Prix, Formula One teams were back in action at the Sakhir Circuit, with Lewis Hamilton topping the timesheet for Mercedes as F1’s first in-season test of 2017 got underway.

The session start was briefly delayed while shopping containers were removed from near to the pit lane exit and Hamilton too suffered an early setback as his Mercedes ground to a halt soon after running began.

His car was recovered to the garage and after an electrical fault was identified and rectified last Sunday’s second-placed driver was able to continue with the team’s run plan.

It eventually resulted, late in the day, in the day’s quickest time, a soft-tyre lap of 1:31.358. He was followed by Ferrari test driver Antonio Giovinazzi who finished the day with a time of 1:31.948, just over six tenths of a second behind the three-time champion.

Third on the timesheet was Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, with the Australian’s best time coming earlier in the day as the team first focused on aero tests and then tyre and set-up work.

“We did a few runs on the soft tyre and made a few mechanical changes, which were interesting, and a couple of runs on the supersoft. I think we discovered as few things there,” said Ricciardo of his morning’s work. “You do try some bigger steps than you might do on a race weekend and it was interesting to see what the results of those changes were.

The Renault-powered team had envisaged a number of longer runs in the afternoon but an issue with the car’s power unit forced the Milton Keynes squad to call an early halt to its programme.

There were power unit problems, too, for sister team Toro Rosso, with Formula 2 driver Sean Gelael forced to stop his Renault-powered car with a suspected engine issue. The Indonesian driver did return to the action in the day once again he stopped with an unspecified issue. He finished the day in eighth place.

Romain Grosjean was fourth fastest, putting 87 laps on the board and logging a best time of 1:32.542, just under a tenth of a second ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg. Lance Stroll was seventh for Williams ahead of Gelael, while ninth place on the timesheet was taken by the second Ferrari on show on day one, driven by Sebastian Vettel.

The German was undertaking testing for Pirelli aimed at developing its 2018 tyres, though that process was interrupted for a long period my a mechanical problem with Vettel SF70H. With the agreement of teams, Vettel’s outing was extended until 9pm local time to make up for the hours lost in the garage.

Ferrari’s time in pit lane was nothing compared to that of McLaren, however. After another troubled race weekend, the team endured a difficult test day, with driver Oliver Turvey confined to the garage for the bulk of the session as an ERS water leak led to a power unit change.

Turvey was able to get track time in the final hour and completed 17 laps, although ended up in P12, behind Alfonso Celis of Force India 1and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson.

Formula One Bahrain In-Season Test – Day One

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.358s - 97
2 Antonio Giovinazzi Ferrari 1:31.984s 0.626s 93
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:32.349s 0.991s 45
4 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:32.452s 1.094s 87
5 Felipe Massa Williams 1:32.509s 1.151s 56
6 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:33.624s 2.266s 74
7 Lance Stroll Williams 1:33.729s 2.371s 35
8 Sean Gelael Toro Rosso 1:33.885s 2.527s 78
9 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:33.894s 2.536s 89
10 Alfonso Celis Force India 1:33.939s 2.581s 71
11 Marcus Ericsson Sauber  1:34.550s 3.192s 106
12 Oliver Turvey McLaren 1:35.011s 3.653s 17

Ferrari maintained its advantage at the Sochi Autodrom with Sebastian Vettel topping the timesheet ahead of team-mate Kimi Räikkönen. Vettel finished the session three tenths of a second ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.

In Friday’s second practice session the quickest Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas was almost seven tenths adrift of Vettel’s pace on ultrasoft tyres and while the Finn close the gap to the four-time champion in the qualifying runs of this morning’s final practice session Mercedes still struggled to match Ferrari, with Bottas ending the session 0.337s behind Vettel. Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth place with a time of 1:34.542, more than half a second behind the German.

Unlike most third practice sessions, in which teams reserve their qualifying simulations for the a three-lap run on the softest weekend compound at the very end of the session, final practice in Sochi was defined by a wealth of laps of the ultrasoft tyres as teams tried to plot the most effective tyre strategy for qualifying.

The circuit’s extremely low levels of degradation mean that it’s hard to get temperature into tyres – even the ultrasoft – and so drivers spent much of the session discovering at which point on a run their car would deliver the best time.

For Red Bull’s Max Verstappen that came on a third flyer after the half way point of the session. The Ducthman had been second best to team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the early stages of the session but then he suddenly found an improvement of six tenths of a second to claim a fourth place he was only bumped out of late in the session when Hamilton put in his fastest lap

However, Verstappen’s improvement wasn’t enough to give Red Bull hope of mounting an assault on the top two rows in qualifying. The Dutchman finished the session almost 1.5s adrift of Vettel. Team-mate Ricciardo was further back in P8 more than 1.8s off the pace. The Australian also suffered a strange moment late in the session when he stopped on track with an apparent loss of power ony to quickly reset and get going again.

Sandwiched between the two Red Bulls were sixth–placed Felipe Massa of Williams and Nico Hulkenberg of Renault. Behind Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz Jr and Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10.

Hulkenberg’s team-mate Jolyon Palmer was the only driver who failed to set a time during the session as Renault decided to change his engine ahead of qualifying.

2017 Russian Grand Prix – Free Practice 3

1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:34.001s - 17
2 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:34.338s 0.337s 16
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:34.364s 0.363s 20
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:34.542s 0.541s 19
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:35.452s 1.451s 21
6 Felipe Massa Williams 1:35.471s 1.470s 17
7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:35.662s 1.661s 15
8 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:35.830s 1.829s 24
9 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:36.164s 2.163s 20
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:36.556s 2.555s 19
11 Lance Stroll Williams 1:36.649s 2.648s 19
12 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:36.676s 2.675s 22
13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:36.846s 2.845s 18
14 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:36.869s 2.868s 12
15 Sergio Perez Force India 1:36.962s 2.961s 21
16 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:37.164s 3.163s 20
17 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:37.182s 3.181s 15
18 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:37.503s 3.502s 21
19 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 1:37.657s 3.656s 17
20 Jolyon Palmer Renault - - 4

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel took his second victory of the season in Bahrain as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton recovered from a poor start and a penalty to finish in second place ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton exerted intense pressure in the final stages, chopping deep into a 13-second deficit to Vettel but the German kept a cool head to thread through traffic and take the flag with 6.6 seconds in hand. Had Hamilton not earlier been penalised for holding up Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo during a pit stop, the battle might have been more nerve-wracking for Ferrari. Behind, Kimi Raikkonen was fourth in the second Ferrari ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo.

At the race start, pole sitter Bottas led through Turn One. Hamilton, though, lost out and was passed by Vettel as the field streamed through the first corner. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen made an excellent start to rise from sixth on the grid to fourth by the end of lap one, the Dutchman profiting from Hamilton’s poor start and the fact that the Briton backed up Daniel Ricciardo as they went into the first corner, with the result that the Australian was demoted to fifth ahead of Williams’ Felipe Massa. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, meanwhile, dropped to seventh from fifth on the grid.

Over the opening laps, Bottas was unable to carve out a significant lead and by the time the drivers were starting their 10^th lap, just three seconds separated the top five drivers.

With a Vettel was the first to take a strategic gamble, pitting on lap 11 to take on more supersofts. Verstappen noted it and request similar action but when he emerged from his first stop he almost immediately arrowed off track and into the barriers, reporting brake failure.

Moments later Vettel’s early stop reaped dividends when the Safety Car was called into action when Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll collided in Turn One, with the Williams’ driver’s car stranded on track.

Bottas pitted and Vettel inherited the lead. Hamilton was brought into the pits at the same time as his team-mate and as he approached the pit entry the Briton slowed dramatically to minimise waiting time in the stacked stop. The result was that Ricciardo, also on his way to pit lane, was held up badly. The incident eventually led to a five-second penalty for Hamilton, who was punished for driving unnecessarily slowly in the pit lane.

When they emerged supersoft-shod Vettel led from the similarly equipped Bottas, while Ricciardo and Hamilton, both now on softs, were in third and fourth respectively.

When the safety car left the track, Ricciardo’s tyres appeared to be far from the right operating window and he was rapidly passed by Hamilton, Massa and Raikkonen.

At the front, Vettel began to eke out a gap to Bottas and by lap 26 the German had 4.8s in hand over Bottas and a second more over Hamilton. On lap 27, though, Hamilton surged past Bottas to claim P2.

Soon after, Ricciardo was also the move. Raikkonen had passed Massa and on lap 29 the Brazilian was passed by the Red Bull driver, under DRS and under braking through Turn One.

On lap 31 Bottas pitted for the final time, taking on soft tyres. Ahead Hamilton was catching Vettel, whose supersoft tyres, by lap 32, were beginning to look spent. With the gap to Hamilton shrinking Ferrari opted to put the German on lap 34. Vettel took on a set of softs for his final stint and rejoined in P3 behind Raikkonen. He was soon past his team-mate, however, and then he began to chase down Hamilton, lapping a second quicker than the Briton as he ate into the 15.7s deficit.

By lap 39 the gap was down to 12.1s and closing. Behind them, Bottas was now third ahead of Ricciardo who had inherited fourth when Raikkonen made his final stop for soft tyres. The Australian then made his final stop, for supersofts on lap 40 and prepared for a late-race blast from fifth place.

Hamilton made his final stop on lap 42, serving his five-second penalty and taking on soft tyres. He dropped to third, 9.4s behind Bottas and 19s behind Vettel who was now looking comfortable in pursuit of his second win of the season.

The race looked like it might open up again in the final stages after Hamilton passed Bottas and then began to scythe through a 13-second gap to Vettel, but the German held his nerve and applied the pace necessary to keep Hamilton at bay to take the 44^th win of his career.

With Hamilton second and Bottas third, fourth place went to Raikkonen who finished 16.8s ahead of Ricciardo. Massa was sixth for Williams, while Force India’s Sergio Perez enjoyed a great evening’s work to rise from P18 on the grid to seventh place at the flag. Romain Grosjean was eighth for Haas and the final points placings went to Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon in the second Force India.

Ferrari continued to set the pace at the Sochi Autodrom with Sebastian Vettel heading up a Maranello one-two ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in second practice ahead of Sunday's Russian Grand Prix.

The Finn had been quickest in the morning session beating Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by four hundredths of a second on supersoft tyres. However, when the teams moved to the qualifying simulations and the ultrasoft compound in the afternoon, Vettel, who had finished in P5 in a scrappy opening session, made an emphatic step putting almost three tenths between himself and his team-mate and finishing almost seven tenths of a second clear of third place Bottas.

The German’s qualifying run start with a momentary note of concern as he reported an “engine hesitation” but after an opening lap, Vettel’s second ‘push lap’ yielded a time of 1:34.120, 0.263s up on team-mate Räikkönen.

Mercedes could find no response to Vettel’s pace and Bottas finished 0.670s off the pace, with tean-mate Lewis Hamilton three hundredths of a second further behind in fourth place.

Fifth place in the session went to Max Verstappen whose qualifying run resulted in a three tenths of a second advantage over sixth-place team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. The session ended in disappointment for the Dutchman, though, as he was force to pull over at the side of the track 20 minutes before the end, reporting a power loss.

Behind the top three teams the midfield battle again looks tight, with just three tenths of a second separating seventh-placed Felipe Massa of Williams from tenth-place Sergio Perez of Force India.

Massa finished just six hundredth of a second clear of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen just under two tenths further back in ninth place.

Elsewhere, Fernando Alonso was a decent 12^th for McLaren, finishing behind the second Force India of Esetban Ocon, but there were more problems for the team as it was forced to change Stoffel Vandoorne’s power unit.

Lance Stroll was the only driver not to use ultrasoft tyres during the session, with the result that the second Williams driver finished in 19^thplace, 1.5s slower than team-mate Massa.

2017 Russian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2

1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 36 1:34.120
2 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 36 1:34.383 0.263
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 36 1:34.790 0.670
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 34 1:34.829 0.709
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 15 1:35.540 1.420
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 26 1:35.910 1.790
7 Felipe Massa Williams 39 1:36.261 2.141
8 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 38 1:36.329 2.209
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas 31 1:36.506 2.386
10 Sergio Perez Force India 38 1:36.600 2.480
11 Esteban Ocon Force India 39 1:36.654 2.534
12 Fernando Alonso McLaren 27 1:36.765 2.645
13 Jolyon Palmer Renault 22 1:36.771 2.651
14 Romain Grosjean Haas 31 1:37.039 2.919
15 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 36 1:37.083 2.963
16 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 25 1:37.125 3.005
17 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 35 1:37.300 3.180
18 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 30 1:37.441 3.321
19 Lance Stroll Williams 36 1:37.747 3.627
20 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 29 1:37.819 3.699

Valtteri Bottas claimed pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix, edging team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just two hundredths of a second to claim the first front-of-grid start of his career. Sebastian Vettel was third for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo and the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

Pascal Wehrlein got things underway in Q1 with a time of 1:33.502, but that was soon eclipsed by Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and then by Bottas, who elected to run with soft tyres as he set a P1 time of 1:31.041. The Finn was then bounced out of P1 by Verstappen who set a time of 1:30.904 on supersoft tyres. Hamilton, though, was just about to cross the line and when he did so it was in a time of 1:30.814, set on soft tyres. Both Ferrari drivers also set their opening times on soft tyres, with Vettel slotting into third behind Verstappen and Räikkönen taking seventh behind Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo.

As the clock wound down, Räikkönen elected to take to the track again, this time on supersoft tyres and despite an imperfect run that saw him go wide, breaking a piece of bodywork, the Finn climbed to third place behind Hamilton and Verstappen. The remainder of the top placed drivers chose to stay in the garage and all eased through to Q2 with Ricciardo being the lowest place of those who stuck with their first laps in P10.

At the lower end of the order, Carlos Sainz was the first driver eliminated. The Spaniard’s session ended when he pulled over at Turn 14 and reported a loss of power. That left him in P16 ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, Force India’s Sergio Pérez, Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and the Haas of Magnussen.

As has become tradition, Mercedes were early runners in Q2 with Bottas taking the track, this time on supersofts, as did team-mate Hamilton.

The Finn set the early pace with a lap of 1:29.555 but Hamilton quickly went two hundredths of a second faster to take P1. Behind Bottas, Vettel slotted into P3 ahead of Räikkönen, Verstappen and Ricciardo.

In the drop zone ahead of the final Q2 runs were 11^th placed Haas driver Romain Grosjean, followed by Force India’s Esteban Ocon, Wehrlein, Williams’ Lance Stroll and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.

Grosjean was the one to make the jump to Q3, with the Frenchman slotting into P9 as the final times were logged. Renault’s Jolyon Palmer also enjoyed a good session, making it through to Q3 for the first time in his F1 career in 10^th place.

It meant that the man bumped out in P11 was Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. The Russian might have edged Palmer but a mistake in the final corner saw the Russian run wide and the time lost cost him a Q3 berth. Eliminated behind him were Stroll, Wehrlein, Ocon and Alonso. The McLaren driver opted to not run in Q2.

It was Hamilton who held sway after the first runs, the Briton posted a provisional pole time of 1:28.792, five hundredths of a second clear of Bottas. Vettel was third ahead of Räikkönen, Verstappen and Ricciardo.

With Hamilton having beaten Bottas in the previous two qualifying sessions, the form guide dictated that it would again be the Briton on pole, but Bottas wasn’t paying attention to form and the Finn managed to find a fraction more pace on his final run to edge the three-time champion by just two hundredths of a second to take his first career pole with a lap of 1:28.769.

Vettel took third for Ferrari 0.478 behind Bottas. Ricciardo, meanwhile, put in a superb final flyer to improve on his opening time by almost half a second. That left him fourth ahead of Räikkönen and Verstappen, who did not improve on his opening time. Seventh place went to Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, with Williams’ Felipe Massa eighth ahead of Grosjean and Palmer.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in the opening practice session for this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix, beating Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by 0.045 at the Sochi Autodrom. Bottas’ team-mate Lewis Hamilton was third, more than half a second off the pace.

After running on soft tyres early on, Räikkönen’s time of 1:36.074 came midway through the session, with the Finn bolting on a set of supersofts to better the earlier efforts of the Mercedes drivers on the same compounds.

Hamilton had made the early running but it was Bottas who best exploited the red-banded rubber for Mercedes. While Hamilton had a ragged session that included a number of off-track moments Bottas steered his W08 to a time of 1:36.119. Hamilton ended the session 0.562 behind his team-mate.

Fourth place on the timesheet went to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, who jumped ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel late in the session with a supersoft time of 1:37.174.

Like Hamilton, Vettel had a scrappy session, with a spin at Turn 16 midway through the 90 minutes being the most lurid of a number of moments where the German explored the outer limits of grip on the smooth and rarely used surface

Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull also struggled for grip, running off track at one point, though the Australian eventually finished sixth ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez.

The Mexican ended the session four places and almost six tenths of a second clear of team-mate Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman brought out the red flags, too, when his car’s engine cover became dislodged at Turn 2.

Eighth and ninth places in the session were taken by the Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll with the Brazilian edging the Canadian by just over four hundredths of a second.

2017 Russian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1

1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:36.074s - 19
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:36.119s 0.045s 24
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:36.681s 0.607s 23
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:37.174s 1.100s 19
5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:37.230s 1.156s 19
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:37.290s 1.216s 19
7 Sergio Perez Force India 1:37.457s 1.383s 29
8 Felipe Massa Williams 1:37.900s 1.826s 29
9 Lance Stroll Williams 1:37.944s 1.870s 30
10 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:38.065s 1.991s 28
11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:38.496s 2.422s 17
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:38.747s 2.673s 23
13 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:38.813s 2.739s 16
14 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:38.976s 2.902s 17
15 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:39.158s 3.084s 16
16 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:39.533s 3.459s 17
17 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:39.541s 3.467s 19
18 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 1:39.731s 3.657s 21
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:40.079s 4.005s 20
20 Sergey Sirotkin Renault - - 2

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen set the quickest time of final practice in Bahrain, finishing a tenth of a second ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third.

Verstappen’s running in yesterday’s second practice session was compromised when a T-wing broke off Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes and damaged the floor of the Red Bull man’s car, but he recovered this morning to confirm the Milton Keynes competitiveness here with a best time of 1:32.1934, 0.110 up on Hamilton.

Verstappen’s qualifying simulation wasn’t without its issues, however, as midway through his out lap he reported a problem with third gear. The issue righted itself before he crossed the line to start his flying lap, however.

Hamilton’s P2 lap was his first significant move of the session. Like many of the expected frontrunners the Briton’s only early contributions were exploratory laps and as the session entered its final phase Hamilton was down in P9, 1.3s off the pace. His qualifying lap of 1:32.304 was good enough to vault him to second place in the order.

Third place in the session went to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, with the German finishing just four thousandths of a second ahead of Bottas in the second Mercedes. Kimi Räikkönen was fifth for Ferrari ahead of Williams’ Felipe Massa.

Yesterday, Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull was second quickest in the Fp2 qualifying runs, but today the Australian ended final practice in seventh position. The After his installation laps Ricciardo retreated to the Red Bull garage and did not emerge again for the first half of the session. When he did to track once more, his run on soft tyres was interrupted by a red flag as Haas’ Romain Grosjean crashed out at Turn 5.

The Frenchman lost control on the exit of the corner and spun sideways into the tyre barriers, breaking his front wing. He was able to limp back to the pits and the session was quickly underway again. Ricciardo, though, stayed in the pit lane and only set his first timed lap with two minutes left in the session after which he rose to seventh.

Behind him Nico Hulkenberg was eighth for Renault ahead of the twin Toro Rossos of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat.

2017 Bahrain Grand Prix – Free Practice 3

1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.194s - 8
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:32.304s 0.110s 10
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:32.750s 0.556s 10
4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:32.754s 0.560s 13
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:32.785s 0.591s 9
6 Felipe Massa Williams 1:32.801s 0.607s 12
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:32.809s 0.615s 8
8 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:32.933s 0.739s 9
9 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:33.604s 1.410s 18
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:33.744s 1.550s 11
11 Sergio Perez Force India 1:33.916s 1.722s 14
12 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:33.922s 1.728s 10
13 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 1:33.947s 1.753s 15
14 Lance Stroll Williams 1:33.965s 1.771s 15
15 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:34.027s 1.833s 15
16 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:34.064s 1.870s 17
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:34.198s 2.004s 13
18 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:34.205s 2.011s 14
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:34.268s 2.074s 15
20 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:34.417s 2.223s 11

Valtteri Bottas set the quickest time of the final day of in-season testing in Bahrain, posting a time of 1:31.280 as the Mercedes driver worked through 143 laps of the Sakhir Circuit.

The Finn’s time eclipsed that of Sebastian Vettel by just under three tenths of a second. The lap total gap between the Mercedes driver and his Ferrari counterpart was much greater, however, with Vettel logging just 64 laps as he spent a significant portion of the day in the garage.

Ferrari had brought Vettel to the garage during the morning session for a set-up change but work on the car revealed hydraulic leaks with the result that the German managed just eight laps before lunch. Vettel then lost more time in the afternoon when data logging problems sidelined him for a period. He ended the day with a best time of 1:31.574.

Third quickest was Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz. Team-mate Daniil Kvyat ran in the morning, recording a best time of 1:32.313 to take seventh place, but Sainz was able to up the pace in the afternoon with a time of 1:31884, just six tenths behind Bottas. 

After a troubled opening day in which Oliver Turvey managed just 17 laps, McLaren enjoyed a much more profitable outing today, with Stoffel Vandoorne completing 81 laps and setting the day’s fourth-quickest lap of 1:32.108, just under a second off the pace of Mercedes.

Yesterday Romain Grosjean fourth for Haas as the team evaluate brakes supplied by Carbone Industrie and the work continued into day two with Kevin Magnussed setting the day’s fifth-fastest time of 1:32.120.

The Dane finished the day two tenths clear of Force India’s Esteban Ocon and with Kvyat in seventh, eighth place went to Williams tester Gary Paffett, while Sergey Sirotkin was ninth was Renault.

Red Bull Junior Programme driver Pierre Gasly took from Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel of Red Bull Racing’s RB13 and after power unit issues sidelined the Australian yesterday afternoon today the team was restricted to the garage for a long period in the afternoon while it fixed an exhaust issue. The length delay meant Gasly completed 65 laps and finishing 10^thahead of Sauber's Pascal Wehrlein and Force India’s Sergio Perez.

Formula One In-Season Test, Bahrain – Day Two

1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:31.280s - 143
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:31.574s 0.294s 64
3 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:31.884s 0.604s 68
4 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:32.108s 0.828s 81
5 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:32.120s 0.840s 88
6 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:32.142s 0.862s 60
7 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:32.213s 0.933s 61
8 Gary Paffett Williams 1:32.253s 0.973s 126
9 Sergey Sirotkin Renault 1:32.287s 1.007s 90
10 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 1:32.568s 1.288s 65
11 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 1:34.462s 3.182s 91
12 Sergio Perez Force India 1:35.015s 3.735s 70

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton held off the challenge of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to take his fifth Chinese Grand Prix victory as Max Verstappen claimed his eighth career podium finish after a sensational drive that saw the Red Bull Racing driver rise to third from 16^th place on the Shanghai grid.

Hamilton, starting from pole, held his advantage when the lights went out and took the lead ahead of Vettel and Bottas. Daniel Ricciardo passed Kimi Raikkonen for fourth place.

The order swiftly changed, however as first Williams’ Lance Stroll spun off and the Virtual Safety Car was deployed and, soon after, when Antonio Giovinazzi crashed heavily as he crossed the finish line. With his Sauber stranded on the main straight the Safety Car proper was sent on track.

Vettel chose to discard his intermediates under the VSC but that move was penalised when Giovinazzi crashed and the German dropped back. Ricciardo, now on supersofts, rose to second behind Hamilton who had taken on soft tyres during the cautionary periods.

The Australian wasn’t the Red Bull on the biggest charge, however. Max Verstappen lined up 16th on the grid but the Dutchman mad a sensational start and by the end of lap one he was up to seventh.

As the stops played out he rose further and then when the SC retreated he passed Raikkonen and then to cap a remarkable opening spell he passed team-mate Ricciardo to claim second place.

Ricciardo soon came under pressure from fourth-placed Raikkonen and fifth-placed Vettel as Ferrari came back but neither could find a way past the Red Bull across the opening stint, a situation that allowed the front pair of Hamilton and Verstappen to pull away. By the start of lap 20 Hamilton was 3.6s clear of Verstappen, while the Dutchman was 5.1s ahead of Ricciardo.

The pressure on Ricciardo intensified when Vettel got past Raikkonen with a well-executed move at the hairpin. The German closed in on the Red Bull driver and then tried the same move on lap 22.

Ricciardo resisted and they ran side by side through the exit, banging wheels as they attempted to get the upper hand. It was Vettel, though who emerged ahead the Ferrari driver then set off in pursuit of Verstappen.

The Dutchman was 4.9s up the road at that point in the race and within four laps the German had reduced that deficit to 1.8s. Vettel’s pace was irresistible and on lap 29, as Verstappen locked up on the approach to the hairpin, Vettel eased past to claim second place. He was now just under 12s adrift of leader Hamilton.

Further back Alonso’s excellent race, in which he rose as high seventh came to an end soon after he ceded the place to Sainz. The Spaniard slowed soon afterwards and was quickly on the radio reporting a driveshaft problem, which forced him to stop at Turn 9.

Further ahead Vettel stopped for soft tyres on lap 34 in a bid to pressure Mercedes and Hamilton responded, stopping for softs two laps later.

When the order resolved after the stops, Hamilton led from Raikkonen, but the Finn was reporting handling issues with his car saying “there are 20 laps left and I have no front end”. He pitted for new tyres on lap 40 and Vettel once again moved to second place, this time 9.5s adrift of Hamilton. Raikkonen, meanwhile, dropped to sixth behind Sainz.

Vettel was pushing hard to reel in Hamilton but the Briton always had pace in reserve and with eight laps remaining the Mercedes driver was a comfortable eight seconds ahead of his rival.

Behind them Ricciardo began to put pressure on Verstappen and in the closing stages a knife-edge battle developed between the team-mates, with the Australian using DRS to close in hard on the Dutchman and Verstappen not having the benefit of clear air to pull away as Haas’ Romain Grosjean was just over a second further up the track.

A rattled Verstappen complained long and loud about not being able to get past the Haas but in the end he was able to hold off his team-mate’s challenger and soon after Hamilton claimed his 54^th career victory ahead of Vettel, Verstappen crossed the line to take his eighth career podium finish in 42 grand prix starts.

Ricciardo was forced to settle for fourth place ahead of Raikkonen and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz. Kevin Magnussen took Haas’ first points of the season with eighth place, while Force India enjoyed a double points finish for the second race in a row, with Sergio Perez ninth ahead of Esteban Ocon.