Despite finishing seventh in yesterday’s FP2 session, Carlos Sainz missed today’s FP3 and will also be absent at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as the he goes under the knife to remove his appendix following an appendicitis diagnosis.
Formula 2 driver Oliver Bearman has taken Sainz’s place for the remainder of the race weekend, with only today’s FP3 session to prepare for the weekend. The 18-year-old driver took the pole position in yesterday’s F2 qualifying but finished in an incredible tenth place on his debut for Ferrari, ahead of qualifying.
Valtteri Bottas was first to hit the track, with Oliver Bearman close behind him, stacking up those all-important practice laps ahead of qualifying, and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix tomorrow.
Hamilton, Stroll, and Alonso were next to take to the track, whilst Bearman was reassured by the Ferrari pit wall to take his time getting used to the car throughout the session.
After ten minutes of running, only seven drivers had taken to the track, Hamilton, Bottas, Bearman, Stroll, Alonso, Zhou, and Russell.
Mercedes was testing a different strategy throughout the session after making changes to the car overnight, with both cars hitting the track early to decide which strategy they need to prioritise, qualifying pace, or overtaking in the race.
Bearman did a stint of 7 laps on the medium compound tyre before coming into the pit, setting a lap time of 1:30:277. On team radio he complained about the support padding around his head, asking for thinner ones in replacement, likely due to them being too restrictive, and disabling him from gaining a full view of the upcoming corners on track.
20 minutes in, Russell was leading the pack, with Leclerc, Hamilton, and Bearman behind him.
Sergio Perez put in an impressive 1:29:562, the fastest lap of the session so far, with Max Verstappen two tenths of a second behind him.
This was quickly topped by Charles Leclerc who put in a 1:29:206 on the medium tyre.
A kerb on the exit of turn 10 was causing issues for some cars throughout the session as they went wide, causing small amounts of damage to the car and resulting in a loss of downforce.
Verstappen reclaimed his spot at the top, three tenths up on Leclerc and going fastest in each sector.
Kevin Magnussen put in a fantastic lap with less than half an hour to go, just 0.592 seconds behind the FP3 leader, Verstappen, at this stage.
Logan Sargeant clipped the wall at turn 22, similar to Stroll yesterday, damaging his front left suspension and had to return to the garage for repairs. He failed to set a time.
The best lap of the day was updated with Verstappen, improved to a 1:28.412 on the softs.
Stroll claimed he didn’t get a warning message from the team before getting in the way of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine. As a result, an impeding incident has been noted from turns 5 to 7, but no further action was taken.
Verstappen reported that he hit something at turn 10, potentially a plastic bottle, with his rear right tyre, and was wheeled back into the pit.
The session was then red flagged, with Zhou Guanyu crashing the back end of his car into the wall at turn 8, an incredibly fast part of the track, claiming he “lost the car” on the team radio.
Thankfully, Zhou left the car uninjured.
The team will have a lot of work to do to get the car running for qualifying.
Williams team principal, James Vowles, confirmed that Logan Sargeant would not get running again until the qualifying session.
Many of the drivers desperately await the red flag to be dismissed, and a restart time instated, to run the cars on the soft tyre, ahead of the qualifying session. Bearman is one of these drivers, only having used the medium compound so far.
Race control confirm that the session is due to resume at 17:25 local time.
The session has resumed, with just under 5 minutes of running time left.
Kevin Magnussen weaves through traffic leaving the pits whilst on a fast lap, with wind catching his car on the final corner, he finishes in fourth.
Leclerc moves up into second place, within a tenth of Verstappen and ahead of Russell, Alonso, and Stroll.
Bearman completed his first flying lap on the soft compound, putting in a very impressive lap and finishing within the top ten.
Verstappen didn’t improve on his personal best time after a bad sector 3 on his final lap but kept his spot at the top, ending FP3 ahead of Leclerc, Perez, Russell and Norris.
