Before the most important qualifying session of the year, it was Sergio Pérez of Red Bull who led the free practice 3 of the Monaco Grand Prix, finishing 0.041 s ahead of local hero Charles Leclerc, when Carlos Sainz take third place.
With temperatures of 27 degrees Celsius, the cars came out on the track in Monaco under a scorching sun during the last hour of training. Given the qualification so crucial here due to the narrow nature of the Monaco circuit and the importance of track position, it was not surprising to see riders prioritizing the softer end of the tire spectrum in FP3. , a figure that comes out immediately on C5 soft tires.
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The first streak of those smooth throws in the first 20 minutes saw Leclerc initially lead the way with a 1m 13.434s, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen lurking at 0.246s from the Monegasque pace, Sainz and Perez by behind.
With the teams batting back and forth with the same tires, Sergio Pérez took the lead in the 25th minute, just because Leclerc set a juicy 1m mark of 12,885s, 0.412s more than the Mexican’s time, before retiring. be on the track. pits to regroup.
We moved quickly to the final 10 minutes, and the real classification simulations began, with the times falling in quick succession: Leclerc and Pérez, the two drivers looking for a particularly good place for Monaco, while they went one by one with time P1, Pérez finally. reaching the top with a 1m 12.476s, the fastest lap of the weekend so far, but only 0.041s ahead of Leclerc.
1 Sergio Perez PER Red Bull Racing 1: 12.476 2 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari + 0.041s 3 Carlos Sainz SAI Ferrari + 0.370s 4 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing + 0.405s 5 Pierre Gasly GAS AlphaTauri + 0.734s
Sainz would finish 0.370 seconds behind Pérez, as Max Verstappen took fourth place for the third consecutive training session, the Dutchman 0.405 seconds behind his teammate and it seems he has not yet found his comfort zone. in Monaco this weekend.
Pierre Gasly was one of the protagonists of FP3, the Frenchman’s AlphaTauri working very well in the low-speed laps while in 5th place, ahead of the equally impressive Lando Norris at McLaren.
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Mercedes drivers loudly complained about the poor driving of their W13, and this was demonstrated over time, when Lewis Hamilton finished P7, nine tenths of a second, ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, his teammate. George Russell’s team and Fernando Alonso’s Alpine complete the top 10.
Yuki Tsunoda’s second AlphaTauri couldn’t match Gasly’s pace, as he took 11th place ahead of Mick Schumacher’s second Haas. Sebastian Vettel was the best driver of the Aston Martin in the 13th position, although the German remained rude after encountering a slow Sainz during the race to Massenet. However, while this incident has not been investigated, others between Sainz and Lance Stroll, Pérez and Russell and Verstappen and Zhou Guanyu will be analyzed after the session.
FP3 Highlights: 2022 Monaco Grand Prix
Valtteri Bottas was P14 for Alfa Romeo, and presumably pleased to get some cleaning up after missing most of FP1 yesterday, as Alex Albon’s Williams was P15.
Daniel Ricciardo was looking after his strong FP2 derivation, taking a low P16, ahead of Esteban Ocon and Stroll: the Canadian cut the outer wall at the exit of Piscine in the middle of the session before finishing 18th .
Zhou and Nicholas Latifi completed the order, as drivers are now preparing to release their cars at Monaco’s adrenaline qualifying session, starting at 4pm local time.
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