F1 Today | Ferrari dominate final day in Bahrain, Mercedes discuss "weak point"

It was a very impressive showing from Charles Leclerc and Ferrari on the final day of winter testing in Bahrain. Not only did the Monegasque driver complete 132 laps across both of Friday's sessions, he also smashed the timing charts with a string of fastest laps.

In colder, evening conditions in Sakhir, Leclerc was on the ragged edge in his SF-26, with his quickest time, a 1:31.992, the only lap out of anyone across all of Bahrain testing to dip into the 1:31s. In fact, the closest anyone else could get to Leclerc was courtesy of Kimi Antonelli's 1:32.803 on Day 2 of Test 2, nearly nine tenths behind the Ferrari man.

Rounding out the top three on Day 3 were Lando Norris (1:32.871) and Max Verstappen (1:33.109) - nobody could get near the Ferrari, who have also impressed, and shocked, the rest of the paddock with their race simulations and technical innovations throughout the final week of pre-season.

Mercedes encountered issues in the morning session, as Antonelli's running was brought to a halt after just 49 laps. The young Italian's W17 appeared to lose energy coming out of Turn 10 and he failed to get it going again before the afternoon.

That wasn't the only concern for Antonelli, however, as the Silver Arrows driver encountered a "weak point" with his car, namely the race starts. Ferrari seem to have a clear advantage with race launches, judging by Lewis Hamilton's lightning practice starts on Thursday, although on Friday, that was not repeated by Leclerc against Russell.

Speaking to the media, including GPblog, Antonelli said: "The Ferrari power look very strong on starts... it's been a bit of a weak point for us to be fair and it's just it's very complicated with the procedure. I just need to really get it right. There's a lot of work to do. But I think today we made a good step forward.”

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