Formula 1’s 10 teams clocked up 3, 896 laps – the equivalent of around 21,085km, which is distance of a little under halfway around the world – during three days of testing at a Bahrain International Circuit that endured a mix of sunshine, heavy cloud cover and rain.
As ever, it’s unwise to read too much into the headline times on the final classification. But looking at the data and talking to the teams, it looks like we could be in for one of the closest – if not the closest – season F1 has ever seen…

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