PEREZ PUTS RED BULL ON TOP AS F1 WRAPS UP PRE-SEASON TEST

(Reuters) - Formula One champions Red Bull wrapped up the third and final day of pre-season testing at Bahrain's Sakhir circuit on Saturday with Mexican Sergio Perez setting the fastest lap of the week.

Perez's time of one minute 30.305 seconds was 0.359 quicker than Mercedes's seventimes world champion Lewis Hamilton.

It was also 1.9 seconds faster than anything at last year's preseason Bahrain test.

Although testing times can be taken lightly, with the cars running on different fuel loads and set-ups, Red Bull still looked the team to beat with double world champion Max Verstappen leading the opening day.

"We got a good understanding of our car," said Perez after a fault-free day and 133 laps with the fastest on the Pirelli C4 tyres.

"I think we did the most we could today, we did a lot of analysis on set-up and tyre choice. We ran without any big problems, got a lot of laps in and had good reliability in general.

"The team back in Milton Keynes have done a tremendous job, we have a good-paced car and certainly think we can work on that more."

The first race of a record 23 this season is at the same desert circuit on March 5.

Hamilton did his best lap on the softer C5 tyres but the team said progress had been made, with no sign of the bouncing or 'porpoising' that tormented their drivers last year, even if more pace was needed.

"We're not quite where we want to be but it's a good platform to start from," said Hamilton,

whose team mate George Russell drove in the morning and ended up eighth overall.

"We don't know where we will be next week but we will stay positive and continue to push to the maximum."

"There is still plenty of work to do but we're in better shape for next week with more to come."

Valtteri Bottas was third fastest for Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo overall on the C5s, ahead of Ferrari's 2022 runner-up Charles Leclerc and team mate Carlos Sainz. Alfa's Guanyu Zhou was fastest on Friday.

"I feel we've got some work to do," Leclerc told reporters after topping the morning times. "Red Bull seems to be very strong in these three days."