Max on P4 after morning session of pre-season testing in Bahrain
Published on 28 February 2025 by Florence Cobben
Max Verstappen has set the fourth fastest time in the morning session of the last day of pre-season testing in Bahrain. The Oracle Red Bull Racing-driver, who will drive the new RB21 for the full day today, set a personal fastest time of 1:31.209 on C3-compound tyres. The four-time world champion closes the morning session four-tenths behind fastest man Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari. Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes drove a time good for P2, and Lando Norris in the McLaren finished P3.
Max has been passed the baton by teammate Liam Lawson, who drove the car for the full day on Thursday. The brand new F1 season will properly get underway in two weeks in Australia.
At the start of the day the weather is promising and Max appears immediately on track, in an RB21 outfitted with aero racks behind it’s front wheels. This is how the teams can visualize the air currents around the car, as well as the new nose and front wing introduced this morning. Aston Martin announced an amendment to their program – Lance Stroll has taken ill, so teammate Fernando Alonso has taken over his duties for now.
After a half hour Oliver Bearman’s Haas is seen making slow laps – part of his hood on the right side has bid an unwelcome farewell to the rest of the car. The young Brit retires to the pits so the engineers can set to the necessary reparation work.
After Max has his aero racks removed, he again reappears on track, but this time sporting the car nose that viewers have become familiar with in days past. He drives the car into third place on the timesheets, just shy of six-tenths behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. It’s Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes that occupies second place.
Halfway through the session, the Aston Martin team provides an update: Lance Stroll feels much better and will take another excursion in the AMR25 this afternoon. Max has, in the meantime, been in the garage more than he has been in the car. The same could be said for many of the other drivers. Most teams seem to be relaxed and under little pressure to see their drivers go around the circuit.
It's during the second half of the morning session that the track seems to get busier, and Max begins a long run with the new car nose on a set of used C3-tyres. After ten laps, he returns to the pits so his crew can practice a pit stop. After this brief moment of action, it’s back to watching cars standing in their garages. At the moment Max has 36 laps to his name.
With a little over three quarters of an hour to go, seemingly out of nowhere a red flag appears. One of the glass windows of a flag tower placed near the right side of the start/finish line has fallen and shattered on the track. The debris has to be removed. With just 39 minutes on the clock, the track is cleared for action. Moments later another red flag is waved – there’s a tour bus on the run off zone at turn 10! The 2025 pre-season testing sessions seem to be the victim of choice for unconventional red flags.
With 36 minutes to go, cars are again on track, including Max’s. The Red Bull-driver begins his run with a trial start, starting from the end of the pit lane. Of all the drivers, only Isack Hadjar and Alex Albon have stayed inside the pits. Max, meanwhile, is back to driving long runs, and is setting times faster than the lap times set before the red flag.
With just a quarter of an hour to go, Max returns to the pits and hops out of the car: the sign his morning session has concluded. In the afternoon, the reigning world champion will return to complete the last section of pre-season testing.
