Verstappen fastest for Red Bull as pre-season testing ends

The world champion edged out Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and new Mercedes signing George Russell – with most of the field going for performance runs late in the final session.

Remarkably, Verstappen completed what was the second fastest lap of the Bahrain test overall on the same set of tyres he had been running during a wild spin out of the final corner.

Mick Schumacher made a late charge to second overall during the two extra hours of…