Max Verstappen gave Red Bull's rivals plenty of food for thought as he managed to set the fastest time of the last day of testing with Charles Leclerc ending Ferrari's testing programme on a high with the second-fastest time.

The reigning World champion who had a quiet test up until today managed to recover from a quick 360 degrees spin on the exit of the corner to break into the 1:31s, as he managed the best time of the day with a 1:31.720, six tenths quicker than Leclerc and over nine-tenths quicker than Alonso who ended Alpine's testing programme with a flourish after managing the third-fastest time.

Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez went fastest in the morning session with a 1:33.105, eight tenths quicker than rookie Guanyu Zhou and over a second and a half faster than Pierre Gasly, who completed 91 laps.

Lewis Hamilton had a challenging final session as the seven-time World champion struggled with his W13 and could only manage ninth fastest in the morning.

The final day of testing would be the team's last chance to iron out all technical maladies before the season's curtain-raiser held in a week's time.

Hamilton, Perez, Carlos Sainz, and Gasly would drive in the morning session, with Zhou, Stroll, Nicholas Latifi and day two pacesetter Kevin Magnussen getting a session under their belts.

Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc, George Russell were just some of the big players driving in the afternoon session whilst Mick Schumacher, Valtteri Bottas, and Alex Albon would also be getting some much-needed track time.

McLaren and Alpine would only run one car for the final day of testing, with Lando Norris getting another full day of running after Daniel Ricciardo tested positive for Covid-19. After Esteban Ocon did a full day of testing yesterday, Fernando Alonso would be in the car for Alpine.

Red Bull brought a heavily revised car for the final day of testing with the team's new RB18 featuring a heavily revised floor and sidepods.

Williams was granted some extra time out on track after missing most of day two because of a fire that was caused by a brake failure. 

Morning session

The final day of testing began with Magnussen completing his extra running with the Dane managing 39 tours of the Bahrain International Circuit and setting a 1:38.616 in the session's opening stages. But Magnussen was back in the pits not long after as the Haas developed a water leak.

Norris set the early pace in the session's first hour, with the Brit posting a 1:35.504 on the mediums before sticking on the soft compound of tyre and just falling to improve on his next run by just under a tenth.

Shortly after switching to the mediums, Sainz quickly moved to the front, with the Spaniard's time of 1:35.222 just under three tenths quicker than his former McLaren teammate.

Gasly's first set of push laps on the softs started strongly after he managed to post a 1:34.865, but Perez quickly shattered that time on mediums who went over a tenth quicker than the Frenchman.

Zhou gave Alfa Romeo something to smile about with a 1:34.543 on the softs, which was good enough to move the Chinese rookie to the front of the times despite a messy second sector that saw him go wide at Turn 8.

Perez and Zhou traded fastest times for a short while, with the Mexican setting a 1:34.134 on the mediums whilst the Chinese broke into the 1.33s with a 1:33.959 on softs.

After switching to the softs, Perez vaulted himself back to the front of the timesheets with a 1:33.105, eight tenths quicker than Zhou.

Several drivers had to wrestle with their cars during the session, with Hamilton and Latifi both having to go wide at Turn nine after overshooting the corner.

There would be no repeat of yesterday's heroics for Magnussen as a fuel system issue kept him in the garage as the team fixed the problem.

Red flags were brought in the session's final minutes to prepare the four cars out on track for a standing start procedure. But, despite yesterday's attempts proving to be unsuccessful, it was second time lucky for Formula 1 with Gasly roaring off into the distance ahead of Perez and Stroll.

As the session's final minutes were primarily held under red flag conditions, the top six remained unchanged, with Sainz finishing the session fourth ahead of Alonso and Norris. 

Latifi, Stroll, Hamilton and Magnussen rounded off the top 10.

Afternoon session

The final test session of the week began with Bottas emerging as the only car out of the pits, as the front runners stayed in the garage for five minutes.

With the track deserted, Bottas got his laps in, even if his first recorded lap time was a pedestrian 1:40.629.

Russell was the first of the big players to emerge out on track, as he put in a benchmark time of 1:37.849 on the hard tyres. He later improved by over two seconds on his next set of runs using the medium tyres.

Race control deployed the virtual safety car with 25 minutes gone in the session after a piece of bodywork flew off Albon's Williams, causing a brave marshal to run across the track to pick up the errant piece of debris.

That little scare didn't slow him down as Albon moved his Williams into the top 10 with a 1:36.381 on the softs before switching to the mediums and managing a time of 1:35.411.

Vettel's first fast run on the medium tyre was good enough for third fastest, with the German's time of 1:34.862 just 0.043 quicker than Gasly's fastest run in the morning. 

Verstappen finally appeared on track after an hour had gone in the session, with the reigning World champion going sixth fastest on his first set of runs before improving to third on his next set.

His next set of hot laps were even better as Verstappen made full use of his medium compound of tyres to go fastest in all three sectors, breaking into the 1:32s with a 1:32.645 over four-tenths quicker than teammate Perez's best time from the morning.

Vettel's switch to the soft tyres initially paid off as he moved up to third with a 1:33.821 but over a second down on Verstappen.

Schumacher's programme was interrupted with a small spin at the final corner, bringing the red flag out for a short period of time as the German trundled back into the pits with no damage done.

Leclerc broke the Red Bull stranglehold of the timesheets with a 1:33.065, which was good enough for second but over four tenths down on Verstappen.

But after switching to the softs, Leclerc managed to end Verstappen's reign at the top with a 1:32.415, two tenths faster than the Dutchman's medium shod time.

Russell was next to improve on the softs, with a 1:32.888 over four tenths down on Leclerc and two tenths down Verstappen.

After his earlier spin, Schumacher redeemed himself with a 1:33.151 on the medium tyres putting him fifth with just over an hour left to go in the session.

Bottas's promising session ended at Turn 8 as the Finn got stuck in fourth gear and was forced to pull over to the side of the road, ending Alfa's programme 40 minutes early and bringing the red flag out as the marshals cleared the Finn's stationary car.

Shortly after the session restarted, Verstappen did a full 360 on the exit of the final corner, forcing him to abandon his first run on the C5 compound but crucially without damage to his RB18.

Verstappen then proved that the 360 hadn't damaged his confidence whatsoever as he returned to the top of the timesheets with a 1:31.973, over four-tenths quicker than Leclerc.

That advantage was stretched to nearly seven-tenths after Verstappen went even quicker on his next push lap, setting a 1:31.720 on the C5 compound of tyre.

Nobody could match Verstappen, who finished testing on top ahead of Leclerc and Alonso, with Russell fourth but over a second down.

Bottas was fifth fastest, ahead of Tsunoda, Perez and Schumacher, who finished the session eighth fastest for Haas. Norris and Vettel rounded off the top 10.