Leclerc fastest for Ferrari on final F1 testing morning

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Leclerc fastest for Ferrari on final F1 testing morning

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has gone fastest in a bizarrely interrupted final morning of Formula One’s pre-season test in Bahrain before handing over to teammate Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon.

Mercedes’ 18-year-old Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli was second on the timesheets on Friday morning, 0.077 slower than Leclerc’s best lap of one minute 30.811 seconds, with McLaren’s Lando Norris third.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen was fourth, 0.398 off the pace, for Red Bull.

The four-hour session at the Sakhir circuit was briefly halted with 40 minutes remaining when a pane of glass, from the starter’s box where the chequered flag is also waved, shattered and fell on the track.

The engine cover of British rookie Oliver Bearman’s Haas also fell off during the session.

“It’s hard to know what fuel loads everyone is running, as we’re all doing our own different programmes, so you have to take everything with a pinch of salt,” said Hamilton of what he had seen so far.

“McLaren won the constructors’ last year. We expect them to be one of the quickest, if not the quickest, as with Red Bull, who dominated for many, many years.

“For us, we’re just trying to improve. I haven’t even done the long run yet, so I’m about to do it this afternoon, and I’ll get a bit of a better understanding of how this car behaves in a race stint.”

Hamilton, who moved from Mercedes at the end of last season, has so far done only short stints in the car.

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