As the lights finally turned green, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll went out of business, with Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell also making an early appearance after a turbulent Friday. Mercedes tried to make the most of the last opportunity to try the necessary changes in the setting before qualifying for a sunny and dry one-hour session. Twelve minutes the first time on the dashboard was also a courtesy of Mercedes, another violently bouncing Russell stopped the watches after 1m47.256s in the soft. That time Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc quickly won, with the latter leading the way with 1m44.661s after Sainz had relegated him for a while. As is often the case, Red Bull left most of them later, Perez nestled in the top three before reaching the top with 1 m44.416s just before 25 minutes, Max Verstappen first appeared on the track at about the same time. Verstappen’s first timed lap was just half a tenth behind Perez after he turned purple in Division 1, but not as good as Ferrari’s next draw. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75 Photo: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images Just before the halfway point, Leclerc and Sainz re-emerged at the top of the table, with Leclerc at 1m43.514s almost half a second ahead of Sainz until Perez jumped the Spaniard to second place. After the traditional calm in the middle of the session, the action resumed in a frantic last 15 minutes. Verstappen took second place, reducing the gap from Leclerc to just over a tenth, only for the title rival to extend it again to four tenths with a lap of 1m43.240s. A turn of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas in the second lap of turn 3 stopped the final upheaval of improvements. Verstappen was unable to repair the Leclerc after stopping his first lap, but Perez did so, setting the fastest first track on his way at 1m43.170s, 0.070s faster than the Ferrari driver. The Dutchman tried again in the last minutes, but was blocked by a train in the second sector, after turning purple in sector 1, describing the movement as “unbelievable”. Sainz improved his personal best, but remained fourth, about four tenths behind Perez. Lando Norris, McLaren MCL36 Photo: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images McLaren proved to be better than the rest with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finishing fifth and sixth in the final minutes, about 1.2 seconds away from the lead. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was seventh, followed by George Russell’s first Mercedes. Alpine driver Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel finished in the top 10, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s second Alpine. Hamilton dropped to 12th place after struggling with a lack of traction in the back, a problem also reported by Russell. Lance Stroll was 13th, followed by Alfa Romeo Zhou Guanyu, Haas Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda in the second AlphaTauri. Alex Albon was the first of Williams’s cars in 17th place, ahead of Mick Schumacher, with Bottas and Nicholas Latifi at the bottom of the time sheets. Apart from Bottas’s turn, the session remained uneventful, although Bottas went straight to turn 2 as well, with Leclerc using the escape route at turn 15. The delay in FP3 also means that the qualification will be delayed by 15 minutes, while the session now starts at 18:15 local time. Results
