Oscar Piastri set blistering pace in the heat of the late afternoon in Sakhir to top the final practice session for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix, beating team-mate Lando Norris by almost seven tenths and over 0.8s clear of the third-placed Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. 

Though the temperature had dropped several degrees from the punishing heat of the early afternoon the bright sunshine and 31˚C were still unrepresentative of qualifying and the session therefore got off to a slow start with just Haas’ Ollie Bearman and Esteban on track. 

They were joined by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and after a trip though pit lane at the end of a very slow first lap the seven-time champion then took top spot with his first timed lap, set on used Soft tyres. His 1:34.846 was still almost five seconds off the pace set by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in Friday evening’s second practice session, 

Hamilton was soon bypassed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso but the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri then emerged on Soft tyres and Piastri went quickest with a lap of 1:33.324, 0.472 clear of his team-mate who slotted into P2 as the halfway point approached. 

With 29 minutes left, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed when Nico Hülkenberg pulled over in the run-off at Turn 8. The German was quickly on the radio to tell his team his car had gone into anti-stall and then switched off. And as marshals began the process of recovering his Sauber, the action slowed.

When the track went green again, Verstappen was quickly into action. The Japanese Grand Prix winner had suffered a moment on his opening lap and after branding it “terrible’ he headed back to the garage. But out on Softs again after the VSC, Verstappen vaulted to P2 with a lap of 1:33.558, 0.234s adrift of Piastri. Elsewhere, fifth-placed Charles Leclerc lost a mirror and was forced back to the pits just ahead of the qualifying simulations. 

Williams’ Alex Albon was the first to attack the track on new Softs and the Thai driver climbed to P4 with a lap of 1:33.854. Verstappen was next across the line, and he rose to P1 with a lap of 1:33.027. His stay at the top was short, however, as first Gasly went quicker, by five hundredths of a second, and then by Piastri who went a whopping 1.328 second clear of the Franch driver. 

Mercedes’s Kimi Antonelli and George Russell got marginally closer to the Australian, though they were still over a second adrift, and it was only Norris who could get anywhere near his team-mate. However, after abandoning his first attempt, a second go left the championship leader a sizeable 0.668s off top spot. 

Behind the top two, Leclerc, with a new mirror in place, put in a good later flyer to go three tenths quicker than Russell and steal third place. That dropped Antonelli to fifth ahead of Gasly, while Racing Bulls’ rookie Isack Hadjar snuck ahead of Verstappen to take seventh place. Carlos Sainz was ninth for Williams and the top ten order was rounded out by Hamilton. 

2025 FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:31.646 13 212.591
2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:32.314 0.668 18 211.053
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:32.480 0.834 19 210.674
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:32.827 1.181 13 209.887
5 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:32.916 1.270 12 209.686
6 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:32.974 1.328 18 209.555
7 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:33.023 1.377 15 209.444
8 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:33.027 1.381 13 209.435
9 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:33.092 1.446 15 209.289
10 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:33.111 1.465 18 209.247
11 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:33.240 1.594 17 208.957
12 Jack Doohan Alpine/Renault 1:33.347 1.701 18 208.718
13 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:33.370 1.724 14 208.666
14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:33.548 1.902 18 208.269
15 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:33.753 2.107 16 207.814
16 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:34.335 2.689 18 206.532
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:34.363 2.717 16 206.470
18 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:34.518 2.872 16 206.132
19 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:34.636 2.990 7 205.875
20 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:34.965 3.319 15 205.161