Carlos Sainz lights up purple in the final sector as he marks 18 laps on the board this morning but it's not good enough to bump Sergio Perez and the Red Bull off top spot and the Spaniard slots into third on the board with a 1:34.905.

I hope a tweak Ferrari bring to the opener next week is a better colour selection for the numbers on the cars. The black is so difficult to pick out.

Three hours of the morning session left...

Checo catches the Red Bull crew off-guard as the Mexican comes into the pits for a quick tinker.

He's back out on track in a flash to continue parading the car around in the Sakhir sun.

Looks like Red Bull's new sidepod design will be the talk of the town today...

Straight out of the blocks, Sergio Perez goes fastest with a 1:34.733.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Red Bull are always a very difficult team to read in pre-season testing. For whatever reason, even at times when the pace of other cars is pretty obvious, the Red Bull’s real potential is opaque. And this year is not one of those times - all the testing is hard to read this year.

In that context, it would be easy to see a couple of pieces of evidence from Friday as ominous signs for the rest of the field.

First, Max Verstappen went out on soft tyres at the end of the day - at more or less the same time as Lewis Hamilton - and the world champion was slightly quicker, albeit slower than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

Second, the Red Bull news release. In it, head of race engineering Guillaume Rocquelin, was surprisingly punchy. He said: "I’m quite happy with what we found out. We are progressing in different directions and it’s all very positive. We were reasonably competitive at the end without even trying."

Lance Stroll completes his sixth lap in the Aston Martin but only reaches seventh on the timing sheets with a 1:38.417.

Here we go, the screens have been pulled back at Red Bull...

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

In terms of impressions, there is no doubt Ferrari are looking the class of the field so far. The car appears consistent and relatively driveable, and Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have always been close to the top of the times. But Leclerc insists this “means nothing”.

“We need to be careful because the lap times are there but we don’t know what Mercedes and red bull are doing,” Leclerc said. “For now we have to wait, but even though it is a new project I am pretty sure Red Bull and Mercedes will remain the teams to beat. We are working hard and it looks not bad for now but we have to keep working. We saw Mercedes arrive here with a completely different car. We cannot relax - they have not pushed at all.”

Carlos Sainz is attacking the track on a set of medium tyres and is able to jump Lando Norris to go top of the timing tower with a 1:35.222.

The goal is for tighter racing for 2022 and beyond, so let's hope K-Mag has positive feedback when he returns the Haas garage.

Norris has clocked 12 laps so far this morning and is 0.463s quicker than his old buddy Carlos Sainz, who sits in second in the Ferrari.

Image source, Getty Images

Speaking of McLaren...

Give or take some dodgy brakes, 6,583 of you chose this beauty as the best looking car on the grid for 2022 in my colleague Michael Emons' challenge over the last two days of testing.

I'll pepper a few more choices for you to get involved with throughout today's running, so warm up your index fingers.

As well as Ricciardo's absence, McLaren said on Friday they were being hamstrung by a front brake problem that required new parts before it could be fixed.

We'll keep a close eye on the car today but Norris, unlike Alonso, isn't bobbing up and down like a antique rollercoaster, so one less thing to worry about.

The boards are up around the Red Bull garage. No peeking for any of us just yet as we wait for Sergio Perez to come out and reveal any new upgrades to the RB18.

Fernando Alonso is on the hard tyres but the Alpine is bouncing around like a big, pink beach ball.

Laps are being banked in quick succession as Lando Norris goes quickest with a 1:35.504.

Chris Medland
F1 journalist in Bahrain

Image source, Getty Images

It’s a cooler start to proceedings than Friday and the wind has completely turned around to give a headwind into the first corner, as most of the cars file out early to get down to business.

Kevin Magnussen had already been running for an hour before the rest of the grid could join, as part of the extra time Haas were allotted to make up for freight delays that forced them to miss Thursday morning.

The Dane managed 17 laps in that time, although was largely running on the hardest tyre. Lewis Hamilton is fastest early on, carrying an aero rake behind the rear wheels - as Aston Martin's Lance Stroll also is - but the only car that’s yet to come out is the one that might be the most heavily updated: Red Bull. Boxes of parts have been arriving for Red Bull and team principal Christian Horner admitted on Friday:

"We are preparing for the first race so there will be a few bits and pieces we add to the car as the week goes on. But the main focus is on next weekend."

It's been oven-like temperatures in Bahrain over the last two days, so are drivers in for another hot one today?

No dawdling in the paddock this morning, the track is bustling with activity.

We've got Lewis Hamilton on a set of softs, Lando Norris is on the medium compound and the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz has hards bolted on.

Aston Martin have attached a hefty aero rake to the back of Lance Stroll's car.

Morning session

Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)

Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri)

Fernando Alonso (Alpine)

Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

Lando Norris (McLaren)

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

Nicholas Latifi (Williams)

Afternoon session

Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)

Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri)

Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

Mick Schumacher (Haas)

Lando Norris (McLaren)

George Russell (Mercedes)

Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

Alex Albon (Williams)

Who else is out with Lando this morning? And what drivers are sitting back with a coffee until this afternoon?

Let's have a look at the schedule...