Charles Leclerc ensured Ferrari led all three practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix by heading the final hour of running before qualifying.

Leclerc led team mate Sebastian Vettel by just over a tenth of a second after a tidy lap on soft tyres produced a time of 1’29.569. However this was over seven-tenths of a second off the best time seen yesterday, likely due to the hotter conditions final practice is held in.

While the Ferrari drivers did their flying runs earlier in the session, the Mercedes drivers waited until the final minutes before setting their best times. Lewis Hamilton took third with a 1’30.334, over three-quarters of a second slower than Leclerc, while Bottas was fourth after running wide.

Red Bull continued to lag behind the pace on the soft compound tyres. Max Verstappen’s last effort was only good enough for the eighth-fastest time. However in a tight midfield he was just 0.151 seconds off fifth place, held by Romain Grosjean’s Haas. Nico Hulkenberg and Lando Norris also out-paced the Red Bull driver.

Carlos Sainz Jnr gave encouragement to McLaren by joining his team mate in the top 10, and also to Renault as three of their cars appeared in the top half of the field. Daniil Kvyat completed the top 10 for Toro Rosso.

The first of the Alfa Romeos was Kimi Raikkonen in 11th place, followed closely by Pierre Gasly’s Red Bull and Kevin Magnussen in the other Haas. The Racing Point pair were next, Lance Stroll ahead of Sergio Perez.

Daniel Ricciardo had another difficult session in his Renault, ending up 16th. The Williams pair look set for another tough qualifying session as George Russell ended up 1.2 seconds shy of the rest of the field following a DRS glitch at the start of the session.

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Third practice visual gaps

Charles Leclerc – 1’29.569 +0.169 Sebastian Vettel – 1’29.738 +0.765 Lewis Hamilton – 1’30.334 +0.820 Valtteri Bottas – 1’30.389 +1.249 Romain Grosjean – 1’30.818 +1.341 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’30.910 +1.386 Lando Norris – 1’30.955 +1.390 Max Verstappen – 1’30.959 +1.396 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’30.965 +1.604 Daniil Kvyat – 1’31.173 +1.764 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’31.333 +1.823 Pierre Gasly – 1’31.392 +1.971 Kevin Magnussen – 1’31.540 +2.049 Lance Stroll – 1’31.618 +2.069 Sergio Perez – 1’31.638 +2.074 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’31.643 +2.110 Alexander Albon – 1’31.679 +2.563 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’32.132 +3.818 George Russell – 1’33.387 +3.956 Robert Kubica – 1’33.525

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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2019 Bahrain Grand Prix