The start of the FP3 was delayed by 15 minutes due to repairs to the barrier at turn 1. The layers of Tecpro that protect the exterior of the T1 had been carelessly rearranged by a crowding of several cars in the race. ‘Formula 2 sprint above.
When the lights finally went green, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll went out directly, with Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell also making an early appearance after a troubled Friday.
Mercedes tried to take the last chance to try out the much-needed configuration changes before qualifying in a sunny, dry one-hour session.
The twelve minutes of the first half on the board were also courtesy of Mercedes, a Russell still bouncing violently who stopped the clock after 1m47.256s in soft. This time was quickly overtaken by Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, the latter leading the way with a 1m44.661s after Sainz had briefly degraded him.
As is usually the case, Red Bull came out later than most, Sergio Pérez was in the top three before climbing to the top with a 1m44.416 just before 25 minutes, Max Verstappen first appeared in the track at the same time.
Verstappen’s first timed lap was not half bad either, just half a tenth of a second behind Pérez after going to Sector 1, but not as good as Ferrari’s next dam.
Just before half-time, Leclerc and Sainz reaffirmed themselves at the top of the standings, Leclerc’s 1m43.514s overtaking Sainz by almost half a second until Pérez made the Spaniard move into second place.
After the traditional half-session calm, the action bounced back in a frantic last 15 minutes.
Verstappen took second place, narrowing the gap with Leclerc to just over a tenth, just because his title rival has extended it back to four tenths with a lap of 1m43.240s.
A turn of the Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo in the second lap on lap 3 interrupted the last burst of improvements.
Verstappen was unable to revise Leclerc after aborting his first lap, but Pérez did so, setting the fastest fastest first sector on his way at 1m43.170s, 0.070s faster than the Ferrari driver.
The Dutchman tried again in the last minutes but was stopped by a transit train in the second sector after going purple in sector 1, describing the traffic as “incredible”.
Sainz improved his personal mark but finished fourth, about four tenths of a second behind Pérez.
McLaren was the best of the rest with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finishing fifth and sixth in the final minutes, about 1.2 seconds behind the lead.
Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri was seventh, followed by George Russell’s first Mercedes.
Alpine rider Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel completed the top 10, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s second Alpine.
Hamilton finished 12th after struggling with a lack of grip at the back, a problem Russell also reported.
Lance Stroll was 13th, followed by Zhou Guanyu of Alfa Romeo, Kevin Magnussen of Haas and Yuki Tsunoda in second AlphaTauri.
Alex Albon was the first of Williams’ cars in 17th place, ahead of Mick Schumacher, with Bottas and Nicholas Latifi at the end of the time sheets.
Apart from Bottas’ turn, the session remained without incident, although Bottas also continued straight on turn 2, with Leclerc using the escape route on turn 15.
The delay in FP3 also means that the classification will be delayed 15 minutes, the session now starts at 18:15 local time.