Verstappen’s time of a 1:29.576 left him just two hundredths adrift of Russell. Alex Albon was a surprising third for Williams, only a tenth back.
Oscar Piastri may have been disappointed to end up in fourth for McLaren, four tenths off. Likewise, Lewis Hamilton wasn’t able to complete a representative C3 tyre run as Ferrari endured a difficult end to testing.
Other traditional frontrunners like Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris were further down the order, but there’s every indication that they’ll be in the pole picture come the Australian Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time.
Verstappen has become so robotic in recent years that it was surprising to see him spin under the lights at Sakhir. He clumsily went round at turn one after the biggest stop on the circuit.
Red Bull favoured Verstappen by handing him the car for the full day. Liam Lawson’s involvement concluded at the end of day two, giving the team’s no. 1 driver a chance to sample the RB21 in the most advanced spec.
Reviewing footage from one of Verstappen’s laps on Friday evening, Jolyon Palmer noticed familiar issues for the world champion. The handling of the Red Bull seemed to be unpredictable from one corner to the next.
For instance, Palmer observed that Verstappen experienced rear instability on the exit of turn 13, and then struggled to get the front into 14. He was wary of drawing too many conclusions from one lap, but he did question whether the RB21 was fundamentally sound.
After winning seven out of 10 races, Verstappen endured a lengthy drought where he had to drive around the car’s problems. His ultimately comfortable triumph in the drivers’ championship was a reflection of his faultless damage limitation efforts.
The Red Bull superstar could be seen shaking his head after the lap in question, which Norris will privately enjoy. The Englishman has been widely labelled the favourite for 2025, but nobody has beaten Verstappen in this era.
“Was Max shaking his head as he came over the line there?” Palmer said as the world feed cut to Verstappen’s steering wheel camera.
“It’s loose on the entry there for Max. He can handle a car on the nose, but it is just slower when you’re having to make so many corrections.
“You can see the rear just slewing round on him as soon as he released the brakes and got the car turned him. Then, at the next corner, he has a load of understeer.
“So a bit of a mixed bag for Verstappen, not feeling the front and rear connected, which was actually a big feedback of his in the latter part of the year.
“He’s not feeling the whole car act as one. It’s one lap, and we just caught the end of it, but the characteristics of the Red Bull didn’t look great on that C2.”
The 2025 season could be split into two phases. At the Spanish Grand Prix in June, the FIA will implement a new technical directive, regulating the flexibility of the front wings much more tightly.
Ted Kravitz suspects that the front wing rule changes will help Red Bull and potentially hurt McLaren. Thus there may be pressure on Norris to maximise his haul in the first seven races.
Indeed, Norris says McLaren must avoid the ‘shocking’ starts they’ve made in recent seasons. Red Bull have hinted at a considerable upgrade package for the opener in Australia.
Helmut Marko let out a ‘big grin’ and simply said ‘maybe’ when asked about potential changes to the RB21. That was on day two of testing, so it’s unclear whether his confidence levels have changed after the chequered flag on Friday.
