F1 News

How fast was Verstappen really? 'C4 was used at the fastest moment'

15 March 2021 at 19:37
Last update 15 March 2021 at 19:40
  • GPblog.com

If we are to believe Pirelli boss Mario Isola, the tyres held up well during the test in Bahrain but the Italian is not yet able to say what the lap times of the drivers are worth.

Pirelli tyres held up well

"Throughout all three days, all the compounds performed well and no problems such as graining emerged: only light abrasion on the softest compounds," Isola is quoted by The Checkered Flag.

During testing it is always difficult to determine how fast a driver has really been. It's unknown how much fuel the drivers put on the track and if they go to the limit during a run. What is known is that the difference between the C2 and C3 tyre is about half a second.

Verstappen set fastest lap at right moment

Max Verstappen set the fastest lap of all, which he did on the C4 tyre, but Isola can't say clearly how fast that time really was: "The gap between C3 and C4 is bigger than expected, with the C4 driven by many cars when the track was at its fastest," Isola added. How fast the times really are, we will only know during the qualification of the first Grand Prix.

Full times list

 DriverTimeTyre
 Max Verstappen1:28.960C4
 Yuki Tsunoda1:29.053C5
 Carlos Sainz1:29.611C4
 Kimi Raikkonen1:29.766C5
 Lewis Hamilton1:30.025C5
 George Russell1:30.117C5
 Daniel Ricciardo1:30.144C4
 Sergio Perez1:30.187C4
 Valtteri Bottas1:30.289C5
 Fernando Alonso1:30.318C4
 Pierre Gasly1:30.413C5
 Lance Stroll1:30.460C5
 Charles Leclerc1:30.486C3
 Lando Norris1:30.586C4
 Antonio Giovinazzi1:30.760C5
 Esteban Ocon1:31.146C4
 Nikita Mazepin1:31.531C4
 Nicholas Latifi1:31.672C4
 Mick Schumacher1:32.053C3
 Sebastian Vettel1:33.742Prototype
 Roy Nissany1:34.789C3