By: Good morning to all our friends at Formula1.it. The Kuala Lumpur circuit is ready to host the 16th Qualiday of the season. We will shortly witness the final free practice session before qualifying gets under way at 10:00 Italian time. Yesterday, Red Bull looked particularly comfortable at Sepang. The engine certainly delivers performance in the third sector, but that is not the only area in which Verstappen is able to make the difference. Max appears capable of fighting with the Mercedes cars.
Ferrari and McLaren are equally competitive, however. Perhaps not enough to challenge for victory, but, from what we have seen, they are in the fight for the podium. It should be said that it was not easy for the teams to begin running in Malaysia, a circuit they last raced at nine years ago, so there could be plenty of progress, including for the Prancing Horse. Track evolution will be significant, with engineers needing to consider a set-up capable of adapting to improving track-surface conditions.
Before turning our attention to the live coverage of FP3, let us take a look at the Pirelli tyre allocation for the Bahrain GP: the Hard C2, Medium C3 and Soft C4 compounds will be available, representing the middle selection of the range (image: Pirelli graphic).
Pit lane opens at 06:30 Italian time. Live coverage begins at 06:15.
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All the news, photos, weather, session times and times from the Bahrain GP 2026
