Red Bull's Max Verstappen put a stopper to Mercedes' dominance during FP3 at the Bahrain International Circuit, ahead of the qualifying race this evening.
Verstappen put up a top time of one minute 28.355 seconds, 0.263 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
Bottas put up the third fastest time of 1:28.721.
If the top drivers continue putting up similar lap times during the Sunday race, 2020 may be the year that the BIC's lap record is finally broken.
The current lap record is 1:31.447, which was set by McLaren F1 driver Pedro de la Rosa in 2005.
Pedro de la Rosa’s record set in a McLaren MP4/20 is more than a second slower than Michael Schumacher’s fastest lap for Ferrari.
The discrepancy is due to kerbs being realigned at Turn Four, changing the racing line sufficiently for the revision to be considered a new track layout.