George Russell struck late on the third and final day of Formula One pre-season testing as he edged four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen to post Friday’s fastest time in the closing minutes. The Mercedes driver clocked one minute and 29.545 seconds to edge Verstappen’s Red Bull by 0.021sec at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain. Thai driver Alexander Albon was third fastest for Williams, a day after his new team-mate, Spaniard Carlos Sainz, took first with the fastest lap of the three-day session in 1:29.348. The Ferraris of Briton Lewis Hamilton and Monegasque Charles Leclerc, were sixth and ninth on Friday, but recorded the second and third best times over the three days. Most teams swapped their drivers in the middle of the day, but Dutchman Verstappen stayed behind the wheel and drove all the 81 laps recorded by Red Bull during the day. Williams stuck with Albon who completed 136 laps, the most by any driver over the day. The times may not be a true indicator of what to expect in the March 16 season-opener in Australia. Teams and drivers were following their own testing programme, and not necessarily focused on pure performance. They have two weeks to analyse the data and tweak their set-ups ahead of the green light in Melbourne.