Sergio Perez managed to clock the fastest time going into lunch on the final day of testing. The time with the Red Bull Racing driver's C4 compound was the fastest of this entire week. Pierre Gasly drove the most laps at the Bahrain International Circuit this morning.

What stands out most is the absence of Daniel Ricciardo Saturday morning. The McLaren driver already missed the last two days and it has now been revealed that Ricciardo has tested positive for the coronavirus. This means that the man from Perth has to go into isolation and thus has a terrible preparation for the new season. Ricciardo should be allowed out of isolation on Thursday, but whether he will be fit to start for the Grand Prix in Bahrain is doubtful. Stoffel Vandoorne or Nyck de Vries will be the replacement in Ricciardo's absence.

RB18 Updates.

Kevin Magnussen will be allowed to take to the track an hour earlier than the other teams, as Haas F1 was unable to take to the track on Thursday morning due to a cargo delay. However, most of the attention at the start of the morning is on Red Bull Racing. The Austrian formation brought some updates for the RB18. Perez appears at the start with a different floor and a new design of the sidepods. The Mexican is on the inside for the first hour, but upon entering the track he is immediately competitive in terms of times, as he manages to set the fastest time immediately.

In the end, nobody manages to match Perez's 1:33.105. Guanyu Zhou comes closest at more than eight tenths. The times say nothing, because Carlos Sainz went much faster in recent days than he does Saturday morning and also Lewis Hamilton worked through a program that was not aimed at driving fast times.

A lot of kilometers on the last morning

At Mercedes, the focus was more than ever on getting miles done. Hamilton managed to drive a total of 78 laps in four hours of testing. With that, the seven-time world champion was not the most productive, because that was Gasly with 91 laps. The number two in this list is Zhou with 82 laps.

Speaking of Hamilton and Gasly, midway through practice the two men fight a duel on the track with some overtaking. It makes for some great footage, though of course the fight wasn't on the edge of the field. It is a highlight in what is otherwise a rather dull last morning session of preparation.

Porpoising not yet solved

The phenomenon of porpoising is still a major problem for some teams in the morning session. Fernando Alonso is one of the drivers who bounces terribly on the straight, so much so that it damages his own floor. Towards next week's Grand Prix, also in Bahrain, solutions will have to be introduced. Especially for Alpine and also AlphaTauri there is work to be done. Red Bull seems to have it pretty well sorted out by now.