Bahrain GP in Malaysia final practice – radio & live text

Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia held at Sepang circuit near Kulala Lumpur

Race rescheduled from April because of Middle East unrest

Use the 'watch & listen' tab for BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra commentary

Close formSend us your F1 viewsGet involvedLive ReportingTasnim Chowdhury

And we are back. Session has resumed after the debris is cleared off.

There is just 30 minutes left of the session.

00Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingAndrew BensonBBC F1 correspondent

It tends to be in the afternoon when it rains; the humidity builds up, the clouds build, and we saw that happen on Friday. At the beginning of second practice, it was a 90% prediction of rain before the session started. But it all kind of broke up, and it does sometimes to that.

One of the striking things is how few wet races there have been in Malaysia, and in Singapore, despite that fact it couldn't be more tropical. But when it does rain, it really, really chucks it down, but then it dries up really quickly because the sun is so powerful.

30Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing I’m willing to eat my words here but I don’t think Mercedes get podium this weekend. Red Bull look strong and Ferrari look good too

65Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing The red flag has been waved. There is a bit of debris out on Turn 10.

The session has been stopped and the drivers head back to the pits.

It looks like the debris came off Oliver Bearman's Haas.

115Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing 1. Lando Norris (McLaren)

131Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing Yet to join the pack on the track are Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes duo Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.

42Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing Lando Norris has gone fastest now on the medium tyres.

The McLaren driver has set a time of 1:37.161.

Oscar Piastri is a close second, three tenths behind Norris.

141Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing Thundery showers and light winds are forecast for both Saturday's sessions, with temperatures reaching a high of 31C.

51Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing Image source, Getty ImagesThe two McLarens are now out on the circuit and both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are the only two to have the yellow medium tyres bolted on.

Everyone else, apart from Charles Leclerc, has the red soft tyres on for the final practice session.

60Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingSam BirdFormer Formula E driver on 5 Sports Extra

Charles Leclerc is out on track and he's the first driver we've seen on the hard compound this weekend.

70Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing The track is getting busy now with a flurry of drivers making their way out for final practice.

It doesn't take Charles Leclerc very long to top the leaderboard, he is on a lap time of 1:37.772.

Leclerc is also the only driver on the hard compound.

83Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing Max Verstappen is not in a rush to get into his Red Bull. He is having a look at the data and chats with his engineer.

Pierre Gasly has overtaken his team-mate for the fastest lap time, he is on 1:38.241.

Audi duo Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc have made their way out onto the circuit in Sepang.

52Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing Pierre Gasly and Arvid Lindblad have also joined their Alpine and Racing Bull team-mates.

Franco Colapinto is currently fastest in the Alpine. He has set a lap time of 1:39.417.

72Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing Max Verstappen won the last race in Malaysia in 2017, with Lewis Hamilton second and then team-mate Daniel Ricciardo third.

Can Verstappen get another race win in Malaysia, almost 10 years later?

148Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingSam BirdFormer Formula E driver on 5 Sports Extra

Everybody needs to do some meaningful running in this session but my fear is we're not going to see a massive amount of track activity because of the amount of tryes they have remaining.

Everybody is going to need to keep new tyres, and I feel like they've might have used more sets than they would probably have wanted to throughout FP1 and FP2, such is the degradation coming from this track.

81Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing Image source, Getty ImagesIt's been five minutes of the final session and about 19 drivers are yet to get out on track.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli has an ice vest on and has a chat with his engineer in the Mercedes garage.

64Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson have joined Perez out on track. All three cars have the red soft tyres bolted on.

Meanwhile, the majority of drivers are still in the garages.

62Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingSam BirdFormer Formula E driver on 5 Sports Extra

It's close out there in terms of lap time but I just have this feeling that Max Verstappen could be the man to beat today and tomorrow.

He looked very strong yesterday in tricky conditions; this track was not giving the drivers an awful lot of grip, also the track temperatures and tyre degradation, but Verstappen was able to hold onto his car a little bit more.

Let's see how this pans out. It's going to be a fascinating FP3 and into qualifying.

96Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing Are we ready? Lights have gone green for the final practice session in Sepang.

Sergio Perez's Cadillac is the first car out on the circuit.

150Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingBBC Sounds

Harry Benjamin, Sam Bird and Andrew Benson are taking us through the entire Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia weekend.

To tune in to today's sessions, you can either click the listen live tab at the top of the page, search for Sports Extra on the BBC Sounds app if you need to head out and about or you can ask your smart speaker to "play Sports Extra".