{"id":18827,"date":"2024-03-01T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=18827"},"modified":"2024-03-01T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T15:00:00","slug":"carlos-sainz-fastest-in-highly-competitive-bahrain-fp3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/01\/carlos-sainz-fastest-in-highly-competitive-bahrain-fp3\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Sainz fastest in highly competitive Bahrain FP3"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Carlos Sainz became the third driver to top the timing sheets in Bahrain FP3, amidst a very competitive session.<\/h3>\n<p>Ferrari showed some of the SF-24&#8217;s potential in Bahrain FP3, going fastest courtesy of Carlos Sainz. They were kept company by several rivals, though.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin all put together strong times.<\/p>\n<p>Across the field, qualifying simulations were the focus. Soft tyres were used almost unanimously, with the brief exception of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.<\/p>\n<p>The Austrian outfit opted to save an extra set of soft tyres, perhaps indicating their strategic intentions on race day.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, it was Fernando Alonso who proved the closest pursuer to Carlos Sainz.<\/p>\n<p>The 42-year-old was pleased with the set-up changes to the AMR24, describing himself as feeling &#8220;connected&#8221; with the car on team radio.<\/p>\n<p>However, only a few tenths separated him from the other front-runners.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Ucr7ddCIR4F5wcRsx0MxhA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2050610023\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Ucr7ddCIR4F5wcRsx0MxhA',sig:'qlbwGkLJmJIyBqgSfJ6Or2xgDYZ6Gxzf43HTgCEZrGc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2050610023',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A mistake on Charles Leclerc&#8217;s best attempt cost him several tenths. There is more to come from the Ferrari driver in qualifying later today.<\/p>\n<p>McLaren was also firmly in the mix, even with Lando Norris losing several tenths at the final corner on his best soft tyre run.<\/p>\n<p>Mercedes were less impressive than their evening laps in FP2 yesterday, although the W15 is still a competitive machine.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the biggest difference for the Silver Arrows in Practice 3 was Lewis Hamilton, who seemed slightly less comfortable in the car.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, the German constructor will be a key player in qualifying later today.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"6Vl3zWLTTNVwiNEdZCMwEw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2050610740\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'6Vl3zWLTTNVwiNEdZCMwEw',sig:'zGWz1_dqoZ-_zqxMs_id2bVp7DXgm4nJy38dx1HrKRw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2050610740',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The midfield<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Further down in the midfield (if it can still be called up), there was plenty of continuity from last season.<\/p>\n<p>Arguably, the biggest surprise was Nico Hulkenberg in the VF-24.<\/p>\n<p>Despite their pessimistic statements in pre-season, Haas is seemingly in contention for points.<\/p>\n<p>This seems especially likely if their tyre management is more reasonable this year.<\/p>\n<p>Williams and Sauber are in a similar position to last season, whilst Alpine has undoubtedly taken a step backwards.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda will be threats for the top 10, although perhaps not to the extent some expected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carlos Sainz became the third driver to top the timing sheets in Bahrain FP3, amidst a very competitive session. Ferrari showed some of the SF-24&#8217;s potential in Bahrain FP3, going fastest courtesy of Carlos Sainz. They were kept company by several rivals, though. Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":18828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2244,343,68,2238,84,23,2250],"class_list":["post-18827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-season","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-f1","tag-f1-2024","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-sf-24"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}