Verstappen and Leclerc suffer parts woe as Piastri again leads the way

Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen both required parts replacements on their F1 cars during a final practice session ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix in which Oscar Piastri again led the way.

It was an unusual session, if only because the majority of the representative work had been undertaken in FP2 when the conditions were at their optimum and in line with those to be encountered in qualifying and the grand prix.

There were moments of consternation for Verstappen and Leclerc, however, during the hour-long outing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Verstappen's opening stint in his Red Bull lasted all of three laps before he complained bitterly about the ride and balance of his car. It resulted in him returning to the pits to have the torsion bar replaced on his RB21. The component helps absorb the bumps.

As for Leclerc, his issue was more dramatic as the left-wing mirror flew off his Ferrari and over a safety barrier. Thankfully, it was in a spectator-less area of the circuit, although if recovered by someone it will make for a nice souvenir.

In terms of the times, Piastri was head and shoulders above the rest, even McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, with the Australian a staggering 0.668s ahead of the Briton with a lap of 1:31.646s.

After a left-wing mirror change, Leclerc at least returned to the circuit to land the third quickest time, albeit 0.834s behind Piastri. 

In the late afternoon sunshine, the temperature had dropped to 31 degrees Celsius - eight lower than for the F3 feature race a few hours earlier in the day - and with the track temperature at 42. 

Inside the opening 15 minutes, running was minimal as just seven drivers had set a lap time, spearheaded by Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton with a 1:34.846s on the soft tyre compound.

Five minutes later, once Norris had taken to the circuit on the red-striped rubber, that time was beaten by a second. On Piastri's first hot lap, the Australian lowered that mark by another half a second, yet at that stage was still almost three seconds adrift of his leading pace from Friday.

The running was such that Mercedes' George Russell was the last man on track with just over 30 minutes remaining. The Briton had been an onlooker from the garage for the first half of the session.

A moment of drama arose after the half-hour mark when Nico Hulkenberg was viewed stationary off track. The veteran German reported that his car went into anti-stall and switched itself off, ending his session. At the time, Hulkenberg was seventh quickest, eventually finishing 19th.

Soon after, following Verstappen's angst with the balance of his car in his opening moments on track, the Dutch driver pushed on when he returned to split the McLaren pair, finishing 0.234s behind Piastri. That was as good as it got though.

After a spin for Russell out of Turn 10, he reported that "I'd go so far as to say that's the least amount of grip I've had in an F1 car".

It was soon after that Piastri set his flier, yet in the conditions, he was still 1.1s slower than his best lap from Friday.

Russell finished fourth on the timesheet, but a remarkable 1.181s off the pace, followed by team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who was less than a tenth-of-a-second adrift.

Pierre Gasly offered a glimmer of hope for Alpine with the sixth-best time, whilst Isack Hadjar was again the best of the Red Bull family in seventh, finishing 0.004s ahead of Verstappen.

Williams' Carlos Sainz and Hamilton completed the top 10, the latter a staggering 1.465s down.

Bottom of the timesheet was Yuki Tsunoda in his Red Bull. The Japanese driver failed to set a representative soft-tyre time.