The start of FP3 was delayed by 15 minutes due to the repair of a barrier in turn 1. The TecPro layers protecting the outside of turn 1 were carelessly rearranged by the accumulation of several cars in the previous sprint race in Formula 2.
When the lights finally turned green, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll disappeared, and the duo of Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and George Russell also appeared early after the troubled Friday.
Mercedes tried to make the most of the last chance to test the much-needed changes to the settings before qualifying for a sunny and dry one-hour session.
Twelve minutes on the dashboard for the first time were also courtesy of Mercedes, still bouncing Russell, who stopped the clocks after 1m47.256s on soft. This time was quickly beaten by Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, the latter leading by 1m44.661s after Sainz briefly lowered it.
As often happens, Red Bull came out later than most, Perez huddled in the top three before reaching the top with 1m44.416s just before the 25-minute point, Max Verstappen first appeared on the track at about the same time .
Verstappen’s first lap was just half a tenth behind Perez after turning purple in sector first, but not as good as Ferrari’s next barrage.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75
Photo: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Just halfway through, Leclerc and Sainz re-established themselves at the top of the table, Leclerc 1m43.514s leading Sainz by almost half a second, while Perez overtook the Spaniard in second place.
After the traditional lull in the middle of the session, the action intensified again in the frantic last 15 minutes.
Verstappen took second place, reducing the lead over Leclerc to just over a tenth, only to have his title contender extend it again to four-tenths by 1m43.240s.
Alfa Romeo’s rotation of Valtteri Bottas in the run-off on Turn 3 interrupted the latest stream of improvements.
Verstappen could not reconsider Leclerc after interrupting his first lap with a push, but Perez did so, setting the fastest first sector on his way to 1m43.170s, 0.070s faster than the Ferrari driver.
The Dutchman tried again in the last minutes, but was hampered by a train of traffic in the second sector, after turning purple in the first sector, which called the traffic “incredible”.
Science broke his personal best, but finished fourth, about four-tenths behind Perez.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL36
Photo: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
McLaren proved to be the best of the others, with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finishing fifth and sixth in the final minutes, about 1.2 seconds ahead.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasley was seventh, followed by George Russell’s first Mercedes.
Alpine driver Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top 10, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s second alpine skier.
Hamilton dropped out of 12th after battling a lack of traction at the rear, a problem also reported by Russell.
Lance Stroll was 13th, followed by Zhou Guanyu of Alfa Romeo, Kevin Magnussen of Haas and Yuki Tsunoda of the second AlphaTauri.
Alex Albon was the first of Williams’ cars in 17th place, ahead of Mick Schumacher, with Botas and Nicolas Latifi at the bottom of the chart.
Apart from turning Botas, the session was without incident, although Botas also went straight to turn 2, with Leclerc using the escape route at turn 15.
The delay to FP3 also means that qualifying will be postponed by 15 minutes, with the session now starting at 18:15 local time.
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