SAKHIR, Bahrain — George Russell posted the fastest time on the final day of Formula 1 preseason testing Friday after the afternoon session was briefly interrupted when a shuttle bus drove on the track.
The Mercedes driver ended F1’s three days of on-track activity in the desert by beating four-time reigning series champion Max Verstappen, who was 0.021 of a second off the pace at Bahrain International Circuit.
In a bizarre scene early in the afternoon session, testing was halted when a white bus drove slowly on a runoff area of the track.
It wasn’t the only oddity of the day, though. In the morning session, there was a brief red flag after a pane of glass fell from the starter’s box and shattered on the edge of the track. Workers quickly swept up the shards.
On Wednesday, the afternoon session was suspended for just more than an hour when an electrical failure plunged pit lane garages into darkness and disabled floodlights around the track.