Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023

Alonso pips Verstappen by five-thousandths of a second in final practice

2023 Bahrain Grand Prix third practice

Posted on

| Written by

Fernando Alonso was the fastest driver in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, just five-thousandths of a second quicker than Max Verstappen.

Alonso put Aston Martin on top for the second consecutive practice session, ahead of the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Lewis Hamilton gave Mercedes some encouragement by setting the fourth-fastest time ahead of Charles Leclerc, the fastest of the Ferraris in fifth. The top 13 cars were separated by less than nine tenths of a second.

With teams having four days of running around the Bahrain International Circuit already as the final practice session began, it was a relatively quiet start to the final hour before qualifying. Lando Norris was the first driver to venture out onto the circuit, the McLaren driver setting the initial pace with a 1’34.321 on soft compound tyres.

After 10 minutes had passed, more cars began to take to the track. George Russell went two tenths of a second faster than Norris, before Mercedes team mate Hamilton put in a 1’33.508 to go top. The Ferraris of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Leclerc split the Mercedes drivers on their first efforts, also on the soft tyre.

Twenty minutes into the session, the fastest cars from Friday – Alonso’s Aston Martin and the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Perez – joined the circuit. While the Red Bulls opted to run on the hard tyres, Alonso was sent out on soft tyres, promptly going fastest of all with a 1’33.121.

Lance Stroll took a set of new soft tyres and produced a new quickest time, but it didn’t last for long. First he was beaten by the two Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell, by four and two tenths, respectively.

Then it was the turn of the two fastest from Friday, Alonso and Verstappen, to have a fast lap on soft tyres. Verstappen set a new best time with a 1’32.345 to put Red Bull on top for the first time in the hour, before Alonso retook the top spot by just five-thousandths of a second.

Perez was third-fastest again for Red Bull, exactly a tenth of a second slower than Verstappen. Hamilton ended the session fourth fastest, ahead of Leclerc’s Ferrari and team mate Russell. Stroll was seventh ahead of Sainz, with Oscar Piastri ninth and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top ten for Alpine.

2023 Bahrain Grand Prix third practice result

PositionNumberDriverTeamModelTimeGapLaps
114Fernando AlonsoAston Martin-MercedesAMR231’32.34013
21Max VerstappenRed BullRB191’32.3450.00513
311Sergio PerezRed BullRB191’32.4460.10612
444Lewis HamiltonMercedesW141’32.5550.21517
516Charles LeclercFerrariSF-231’32.6240.28421
663George RussellMercedesW141’32.7310.39117
718Lance StrollAston Martin-MercedesAMR231’32.9190.57916
855Carlos Sainz JnrFerrariSF-231’32.9450.60521
981Oscar PiastriMcLaren-MercedesMCL601’33.0450.70512
1010Pierre GaslyAlpine-RenaultA5231’33.0640.72413
1131Esteban OconAlpine-RenaultA5231’33.1160.77616
1224Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-FerrariC431’33.1800.84013
134Lando NorrisMcLaren-MercedesMCL601’33.2020.86216
1420Kevin MagnussenHaas-FerrariVF-231’33.3811.04121
1527Nico HulkenbergHaas-FerrariVF-231’33.4231.08323
1622Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Red BullAT041’33.4751.13515
1777Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-FerrariC431’33.6291.28914
182Logan SargeantWilliams-MercedesFW451’33.6651.32515
1923Alexander AlbonWilliams-MercedesFW451’33.8821.54215
2021Nyck de VriesAlphaTauri-Red BullAT041’34.0821.74218

Combined practice times

PositionNumberDriverTeamFP1 timeFP2 timeFP3 timeGapLaps
114Fernando AlonsoAston Martin-Mercedes1’33.1961’30.9071’32.3401
21Max VerstappenRed Bull1’33.3751’31.0761’32.3450.1692
311Sergio PerezRed Bull1’32.7581’31.0781’32.4460.1713
416Charles LeclercFerrari1’34.2571’31.3671’32.6240.4604
527Nico HulkenbergHaas-Ferrari1’35.0431’31.3761’33.4230.4695
618Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes1’34.2981’31.4501’32.9190.5436
710Pierre GaslyAlpine-Renault1’35.4551’31.4751’33.0640.5687
844Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’34.9171’31.5431’32.5550.6368
94Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1’34.1651’31.5701’33.2020.6639
1024Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’34.5751’31.5861’33.1800.67910
1131Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1’35.1051’31.6081’33.1160.70111
1277Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’34.6891’31.7931’33.6290.88612
1363George RussellMercedes1’34.9661’31.8821’32.7310.97513
1455Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari1’36.0721’31.9561’32.9451.04914
1581Oscar PiastriMcLaren-Mercedes1’34.9971’32.0241’33.0451.11715
1620Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’34.4021’32.1101’33.3811.20316
1723Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1’36.0181’32.4401’33.8821.53317
1822Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Red Bull1’35.0151’32.5251’33.4751.61818
1921Nyck de VriesAlphaTauri-Red Bull1’35.4021’32.6051’34.0821.69819
202Logan SargeantWilliams-Mercedes1’35.7491’32.7491’33.6651.84220

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2023 Bahrain Grand Prix

rowse all 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix articles

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

16 comments on “Alonso pips Verstappen by five-thousandths of a second in final practice”

  1. My god i haven’t been this excited for a long time. Age is just a number. It shows us what we have missed with Fernando not being in a competitive car for years. But he never lost that hunger.

  2. Promising showing from Piastri so far, he’s shown he can keep up.

    1. Seems so.

  3. Alonso is a true GOAT, an absolute master. Up there with Senna and Schumacher. Nobody else from the last 30 years comes anywhere close to these guys.

    1. Hamilton and Vettel come to mind. 11 championships between them.

      1. Both OK drivers but needed a dominant car to win, and just didn’t have the mental strength to keep going against all odds.

        Predictably Ham is already crying and ready to give up!

        1. You’re missing any reliable data points for this season, to draw any conclusions. For example, what if AM has by chance produced a monster car that is faster than anything else (a la Brawn 2009)? How much is each team sandbagging during these practice sessions? How much of a differential is there between one lap performance and race performance of each car? Etc.

          Longer-term data points, you’ve got a case to make, but then there are other data points that go against it. Alonso was matched by Hamilton in the same car in his rookie season, which doesn’t suggest a great gap in raw ability between the two. There is possibly an argument to say Alonso is one of the best at maximising a car that isn’t as good as others (and we know for some drivers like Vettel, that was a clear weakness), but he can only perform to the capabilities of the car.

          It’s pretty subjective, at the end of the day.

        2. Weird that you’re talking about Lewis giving up and forgetting Fernando actually giving up on Ferrari and then the sport itself a few years ago. Meanwhile, everyone that has watched the sport for a while has seen that what Lewis does on track is usually at odds with what he says.

          1. Alonso almost gave up on Renault in the middle of his 2006 campaign lol.
            Definitely not the kind of guy to endure the pressure of a difficult championship. He WILL snap when things don’t go his way.

        3. It’s amazing all the wins Alonso has picked up in the last few years in non dominant cars

  4. Verstappen still not clear of Perez, which suggests he’d be ahead (of Alonso) if he had the car dialled in to his liking.

  5. While Alonso is at the top it’s noticeable on combined times the top 10 features 8 cars split by 0.679 seconds. Early signs that the aero testing rules are making a difference?

    1. The Indycar-ification of F1 into GP1.

      Success penalties (Which is what the aero sliding scale thing basically is) have zero place in F1.

      It’s all artificial now sadly because artificially trying to keep the field close by all these anti-F1 restrictions trying to force the best to rubberband towards the back teams goes against everything that F1 was about throughout it’s history.

      It’s going to see a lot of hardcore, truly dedicated, long time fans of the actual sport walk away as I basically already am. Barely watched any of the track action so far from testing or practice because of how GP1 the show that was once a sport is starting to feel.

      Guess i’ll just use F1TV to watch the good stuff from decades past when it was still a sport & still had all the extremes & very different looking cars that made F1 such a great sport back then.

      Enjoy your artificial gimmick ridden Indycar GP1 folks.

  6. petebaldwin (@)
    4th March 2023, 13:49

    Glad to see lots of them are close. It still doesn’t mean much until they turn the wick up in quali but it’s promising.

  7. A Verstappen-Alonso duel in the making? Could it be? That’d be quite something.

    Let’s see how qualifying shakes out.

  8. If this is a sign of a genuine Alonso-Verstappen battle this season (far too soon to tell) then I seriously hope it’s a third Alonso title and not another heroic failure for him. He has enough of those already and a third title now, bookending his career spectacularly, would be an amazing F1 story.
    Plus I’ve already sworn myself not to read anything he says this season, purely because he’s bound to say something at some point that makes me go back on this support…

Comments are closed.