Max Verstappen set the fastest lap of FP3 in France with a late run on soft tyres, holding off Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc by a comfortable margin.
Verstappen held first place for much of the session thanks to his first medium tire benchmark of 1m 32.808s. While the Dutchman went out after a few minutes in FP3, Leclerc and Sainz went out after 15 minutes, Leclerc on hard tires for eight laps (a turn 12 spin cut short his run) while Sainz went out to spin on tous.
Neither could match or outshine Verstappen until grip and temperatures rose late in FP3, when Sainz came out on top with a time of 1m 32.626s. However, it was then that Verstappen opted to switch from medium to soft and returned to the top with a blistering effort of 1m 32.272s.
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The championship leader relegated Sainz – who will start Sunday’s race at the back of the grid due to power unit changes – to second (0.354s adrift), while Leclerc was 0.637s behind P3, complaining that his tires were falling off after a flight. effort
Lewis Hamilton took 4th position in FP3, the Mercedes driver with a different rear wing than his teammate. The soft tire races saw Hamilton finish 0.983s off the pace of Verstappen, Sergio Perez a whisker behind in fifth after running the same soft medium race plan as the reigning champion in the other Red Bull.
1 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing 1:32.272 2 Carlos Sainz SAI Ferrari +0.354s 3 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari +0.637s 4 Lewis Hamilton HAM Mercedes +0.983s 5 Sergio Pérez PER Red Bull Racing +1.021s
George Russell finished sixth, just eight-hundredths behind team-mate Hamilton, while Alpine’s Fernando Alonso switched from mediums to softs late in the session to jump to seventh.
Behind Alonso was Williams’ Alex Albon, who was eighth in his newly updated Williams, while team-mate Nicholas Latifi was 12th in this session as he also enjoyed the new upgrades by Williams.
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Among the Williams were McLaren’s Lando Norris in ninth, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in 10th and Daniel Ricciardo in 11th.
Pierre Gasly took 13th in this session for AlphaTauri ahead of Alfa Romeos, Valtteri Bottas 14th and Zhou Guanyu 15th.
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Kevin Magnussen will start at the back of the grid with Sainz for the Grand Prix having also picked up new Ferrari engine components, and finished 16th for Haas after finishing the session with an 11-lap stint on medium tyres.
Esteban Ocon was next on the board in 17th for Alpine after a couple of steady stints in the mediums and a late run in the softs.
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Mick Schumacher was 19th, backed by Aston Martins: Lance Stroll 18th and Sebastian Vettel 20th, with the four-time champion missing the second half of FP3 with floor damage.
With qualifying to come, Red Bull have shown a turn of pace and perhaps given Ferrari something to worry about in France. Join us at 4pm local time for live coverage.
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