After rainy Friday practice sessions, the third free practice session gets off to a dry start. Max Verstappen in the Red Bull is the first out on track, after being forced to end FP2 early due to a ERS issue. He is closely followed by his teammate, Sergio Perez. Both Red Bull drivers are on the medium tyres. Most of the drivers will be running on the medium tyres early on.
Verstappen cuts across the apex of the final chicane. On the radio, he states that his steering felt “super weird”.
Yellow flag in sector one as Zhou Guanyu goes into the barriers at Turn 2 after spinning. He tells his engineer that the car “just locks up in the rear.”
The red flag is then brought out, less than 6 minutes in. Current fastest time set by Pierre Gasly in the Alpine (1:16.412), with teammate Esteban Ocon in second, and Sergio Perez of Red Bull in third.
Session to get underway again at 12:40 p.m. local time.
Session restarts. Oscar Piastri in the McLaren is first out on track, followed by Verstappen. Verstappen sets a new fastest time (1:15.495).
Fernando Alonso sets the second fastest time (0.295s behind Verstappen) on the hard tyres. Alonso is the only driver on the hards alongside teammate Lance Stroll.
Alexander Albon in the Williams goes off the track at turn 9. He asks his engineer if the brakes are okay.
Alonso goes fastest (1:14.870), 0.113 seconds faster than the previous fastest time set by Verstappen. Alonso is still on the hard tyres. Verstappen is on the medium tyres. Piastri goes third on the mediums, but quickly knocked to fourth by teammate, Lando Norris. Piastri knocked down to fifth by Kevin Magnussen in the Haas. Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, also on the hard tyres goes third, past Norris.
20 minutes in and the top 10 is: ALO, VER, STR, NOR, MAG, PIA, OCO, RIC, GAS, SAR
Daniel Ricciardo of VCARB up to second, 0.335 seconds behind Alonso’s improved fastest time of 1:14.445.
Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes on the radio telling his engineer that “the wind has picked up a bit.”
Verstappen is back on track, currently in P5. His teammate, Perez currently in P19 following a long run.
New fastest time (1:14.355) set by Logan Sargeant of Williams on the soft tyres. Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari now up to third, also on the soft tyres.
30 minutes in and the standings are: SAR, ALO, SAI, RIC, STR, NOR, VER, MAG, TSU, PIA, OCO, ALB, GAS, HUL, LEC, BOT, HAM, RUS, PER, ZHO.
George Russell of Mercedes sets the new fastest time (1:14.279), also on the soft tyres. He goes 0.076s faster than Sargeant. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari is on the radio complaining about his brakes.
Albon now fastest (1:13.975) but overtaken by Leclerc who goes 0.394s faster than Albon. Leclerc’s teammate, Sainz, now up to third, but quickly overtaken by Russell. Lewis Hamilton goes fastest (1:13.464), 0.117s ahead of Leclerc.
Valtteri Bottas sets the seventh fastest time but is noted by race control for driving unnecessarily slowly.
Lando Norris goes second fastest, 0.011s behind Hamilton. Leclerc now in P3.
Ricciardo goes faster than both Albon and Sargeant of Williams to go to P4.
20 minutes remaining and the top 10 are: HAM, NOR, LEC, RIC, ALB, SAR, RUS, SAI, PIA, BOT. All drivers in the top ten running on the soft tyres.
Tsunoda now up to P10, ahead of Bottas. Piastri then moves up to P5, behind Ricciardo but ahead of both Williams.
Tsunoda on the radio complaining that “rear is sliding around”. Most cars now in the pits. Only Ricciardo, Albon, Sainz, Russell on track. Sargeant now on his out lap.
Russell goes fastest (1:13.274), ahead of teammate Hamilton who is now on an out lap. Albon touches the wall but carries on to make his way back to the pits. Albon’s session is over due to damage.
Verstappen goes up to P2. He and Russell are knocked down to P3 and P2 respectively with Hamilton setting a new fastest time of 1:12.549.
Only 10 minutes remaining and the current standings are: HAM, RUS, VER, NOR, LEC, RIC, PIA, ALB, SAR, SAI, TSU, BOT, ALO, STR, MAG, OCO, GAS, HUL, PER, ZHO.
Verstappen on the radio complaining that the car is “jumping around”, especially in turn 1, but also in turns 3 and 4.
Ricciardo now up to P3, ahead of Verstappen. Magnussen up to P8, followed by Stroll in P9, Alonso in P10, Bottas in P11. Perez up to P12.
Five minutes to go and all drivers on track on the soft tyres. Hamilton still in P1 with the fastest time of 1:12.549 as he proves to be untouchable. Verstappen now up to P2 (0.633s) behind. Piastri in P3, ahead of Russell in P4. Stroll now goes second fastest, 0.532s behind current leader, Hamilton. Russell goes ahead of Stroll and sits 0.402s behind teammate Hamilton.
Less than one minute left and Leclerc (currently P10) is on the radio to tell his engineer, “we are extremely slow”. Meanwhile, Verstappen clips the wall.
The checkered flag comes out. Drivers are finishing up their laps. Sainz goes up to P12, two positions behind teammate Leclerc, but behind the Haas of Magnussen.
Both Ferraris have opted not to do a practice start and are back in the pits.
Hamilton ends the session in P1, with the fastest time of 1:12.549, ahead of 0.374 s ahead of Verstappen.
Final classification: HAM, VER, RUS, STR, PIA, RIC, NOR, ALO, PER, LEC, MAG, SAI, BOT, SAR, TSU, GAS, HUL, ALB, OCO, ZHO.
Six teams (Mercedes, Red Bull, Aston Martin, McLaren, VCARB, Ferrari) are in the top 10.
