Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz had led the final morning session from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez before running was interrupted by a broken drain cover for the second day in a row.
Because repairs halted the test for 1h17, the decision was taken to cancel the planned one-hour lunch break and carry on all the way to the chequered flag at 7pm local time.
There was early trouble for McLaren, which added to its testing gremlins this week with an apparent clutch issue for Lando Norris. Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas also ran a restricted programme while his team worked on the floor and rear end of his green and black car.
In the afternoon, Max Verstappen took over from Perez in the RB20, while Leclerc replaced Sainz in the scarlet Ferrari.
Leclerc soon went third fastest behind Sainz and Perez until Verstappen put down a 1m31.058s, followed by a 1m30.763s on used C3 tyres 25 minutes later.
Leclerc replied with a 1m30.409s, but used the C4 compound which is a significant step softer and won’t be used at next week’s Bahrain Grand Prix at the same Sakhir circuit.
With two hours left to run the Monegasque driver took on another set of the red side-walled tyre to clock a 1m30.322s, going four tenths clear of the world champion.
Heading towards the final hour most heavy hitters switched their focus to longer runs on the hardest tyres.
But RB’s Yuki Tsunoda used C4s to vault up to third in the final hour, half a second shy of Leclerc.
He was soon shadowed by George Russell, who was fourth 0.040s behind on the harder C3 tyre, while Alex Albon lifted himself to fifth with a late C4 lap.
Albon was the only driver to stay in the car all day, completing 121 laps aboard the Williams FW46.
Bolting on the C4s himself, Russell then attacked Leclerc’s table-topping time but a purple third sector wasn’t enough to dislodge the Ferrari as the Briton finished second, 0.046s behind.
Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu followed Russell through in third with a 1m30.647s, which demoted Verstappen to fourth.
Behind Tsunoda and Albon, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had moved up right before sunset to end the test seventh and eighth respectively.
Sainz’s morning time held up for ninth ahead of Perez and Haas man Nico Hulkenberg.
Lewis Hamilton finished off his winter test in 12th after running 49 laps in the morning. He was followed by morning runners Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Norris.
Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon completed a low-key test for Alpine in 15th and 17th respectively, split by Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
After his limited morning running Bottas was 18th, with RB’s Daniel Ricciardo the slowest of the 19 active drivers on Friday.
The 2024 season kicks off in earnest on Thursday with first practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, which this year will be held on a Saturday.
Pos
Driver
Team
Time
Gap
Laps
Tyres
1
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
1:30.322
74
C4
2
George Russell
Mercedes
1:30.368
+0.046s
67
C4
3
Zhou Guanyu
Sauber
1:30.647
+0.325s
85
C4
4
Max Verstappen
Red Bull Racing
1:30.755
+0.433s
66
C3
5
Yuki Tsunoda
RB
1:30.775
+0.453s
53
C4
6
Alexander Albon
Williams
1:30.984
+0.662s
121
C4
7
Oscar Piastri
Mclaren
1:31.030
+0.708s
91
C3
8
Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin
1:31.159
+0.837s
75
C3
9
Carlos Sainz
Ferrari
1:31.247
+0.925s
71
C3
10
Sergio Perez
Red Bull Racing
1:31.483
+1.161s
53
C3
11
Nico Hulkenberg
Haas
1:31.686
+1.364s
89
C3
12
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
1:31.999
+1.677s
49
C5
13
Lance Stroll
Aston Martin
1:32.038
+1.716s
46
C3
14
Lando Norris
Mclaren
1:32.108
+1.786s
20
C3
15
Pierre Gasly
Alpine
1:32.149
+1.827s
47
C3
16
Kevin Magnussen
Haas
1:33.053
+2.731s
80
C3
17
Esteban Ocon
Alpine
1:33.079
+2.757s
55
C3
18
Valtteri Bottas
Sauber
1:33.528
+3.206s
28
C3
19
Daniel Ricciardo
RB
1:37.015
+6.693s
70
C1
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