On the final day of the three-day pre-season testing ahead of the new Formula 1 season set Max Verstappen the fourth fastest time. The reigning world champion driving for Oracle Red Bull Racing completed a total of 66 laps and set his fastest time on C3 tyres, while the drivers ahead of him set their time on the softer C4 tyres. Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari set the fastest time ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Sauber of Guanyu Zhou.“Our plan was not to focus on pure lap time”, says Max after the final day. “It was more important to get the long runs done and get a bit more of an understanding of the car. So, we focussed on that programme, and to be honest it all looked quite positive. Quite happy with how the car was behaving.”Max continues: “When we head into the race weekend it is about fine tuning the balance around the circumstances that we face.”Max concludes with: “I am happy with the overall lap times, now we must analyse the data and come up with a plan for the coming race weekend. I am looking forward to next week. There will always be a couple of little surprises during a race weekend, and when you go to the limit you will always find out more about the car, but we could not hope for a better test.”
