World championship leader Antonelli tops final practice ahead of Bahrain Grand Prix

[p]The 20-year-old Italian produced a late fastest lap of one minute and 36.302 seconds to outpace four-time champion [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/verstappen-max/UV3mgeXB/"]Max Verstappen[/a] by 0.278 seconds, with [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/hadjar-isack/8SAk38Ui/"]Isack Hadjar[/a] third, adrift by half a second.[/p][p]His Mercedes teammate [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/russell-george/xxF56RaN/"]George Russell[/a] was fourth, six-tenths off the pace, ahead of the Ferraris of [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/leclerc-charles/KlCOSRub/"]Charles Leclerc[/a] and seven-time champion [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/hamilton-lewis/tI5Vpe1h/"]Lewis Hamilton[/a].[/p][p]World champion [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/norris-lando/WSVABbVF/"]Lando Norris[/a] was seventh ahead of McLaren teammate [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/piastri-oscar/MqKAIeUf/"]Oscar Piastri[/a].[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/colapinto-franco/GzFqySBA/"]Franco Colapinto[/a], who faces a 15-place grid penalty for Sunday's race after crashing in Baku last week and taking a new engine, was ninth for Alpine ahead of Racing Bulls' rookie [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/lindblad-arvid/bgk1rl5a/"]Arvid Lindblad[/a].[/p][p]Verstappen once again showed his prowess with a brief appearance on softs in an uneventful session run in hot and humid conditions, but the action was mainly concerned with tyre evaluation and preservation.[/p][embed guid="7b3b5ecd-fb75-4999-8840-a6358ccb7891" url="https://x.com/F1/status/2106257230618108300?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]It began in a leisurely fashion with only two cars venturing out in the heat, with the serious stuff only starting when Leclerc and Norris joined in after 15 minutes.[/p][p]The first meaningful times did not come until Norris topped Leclerc and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/gasly-pierre/nqYFMBBf/"]Gasly[/a] in 1:37.161, as most teams looked to save their tyres for qualifying later Saturday.[/p][p]With 25 minutes run, both Mercedes, both Red Bulls, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/antonelli-andrea-kimi/ptGu0mT1/"]Antonelli[/a] and Hamilton remained in the pits, while Norris and Piastri, on mediums, topped the time-screens ahead of Leclerc, on hards, with the rest all on softs.[/p][p]The action paused mid-session for three minutes when a red flag was shown as [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/bearman-oliver/tMI3u5xo/"]Oliver Bearman[/a]'s Haas shed some brake shrouding at Turn 10.[/p][p]The big guns then joined the fray, with Antonelli going top in 1:36.924 ahead of Russell.[/p][p]Hamilton, still struggling with a faulty mirror, was then impeded on his first push run on softs. Ferrari had been fined 10,000 euros (£8,500) on Friday when his mirror partly caused an impeding incident.[/p][p]It was a mostly unspectacular session until the final minutes, as the drivers lapped with care to keep tyres cool and fresh before their flying laps - and needing to retain multiple sets of softs in particular.[/p]