Sergio Pérez paid for Charles Leclerc’s training treble at home, beating the Ferrari driver in the last minute of FP3 to finish the fastest of all.
Red Bull and Ferrari resumed their battle in Saturday’s third training session for the Monaco Grand Prix, where Perez was again the faster of the two Red Bull drivers.
He led the fight to Leclerc, the top two finishers at the end of the session, with Pérez coming out on top with a 1: 12.476. Leclerc went down 0.041 s.
Carlos Sainz was third, ahead of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.
FP3 – Top 3 😊 # MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/yS5VEkaeKi
—Tami. (@Vetteleclerc) May 28, 2022
After falling into the pool’s chicane in second training, Daniel Ricciardo was one of the first to get off the track when he took a lap on his newly repaired MCL36. McLaren broke the curfew on Friday night to fix the car, the team revealed they did not have to change their chassis.
He came out with the Pirelli soft, the rider was third on his first lap flying as he lined up behind Fernando Alonso, a 1: 14.757 for the Alpine rider, and Valtteri Bottas. Only five drivers set a time in the first 10 minutes.
And then Ferrari and Red Bull went out to play …
Leclerc’s pace on Friday was the fastest with a time of 1: 14.008 before reducing it to 1: 13.647 and then a time of 1: 13.434, as he seemed able to ride the sidewalks better than his rivals. Verstappen climbed to the 2nd position, but a quarter of a second below his rival for the title, as it was obvious that his RB18 was not behaving so well.
As they picked up the pace, Leclerc’s improvements followed by Verstappen’s, his teammates fought for third place with Sainz with the starting lead. That was until Perez was the fastest of them all.
The Mexican rider scored a 1: 13.297 with Leclerc scoring exactly the same time, but having to finish second in the time sheets as Pérez did first. Verstappen also found some pace, but it was only enough for the third.
Leclerc 📻 “Something strange is happening on curve 1”
“Yeah Al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like BT aint for me either.
Not the curse of Monaco already appears 🙃 # MonacoGP # F1
– Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) May 28, 2022
Behind them, Lando Norris asked McLaren to check “the direction, I just cut the wall.” Lewis Hamilton almost bounced off the wall at turn 15 and Lance Stroll continued on St. Devotee. He was also being investigated by commissioners for preventing Esteban Ocon.
Hamilton, ninth sitting, told Mercedes he doesn’t know “where” to find Pérez’s 1.2-second deficit. Do this 1.6 seconds to Leclerc, the local guy who returns to the top with his soft 13-lap tires. His teammate Sainz went straight to turn 1. Both Hamilton and George Russell returned to their respective garages to make some configuration changes.
Still working @ MercedesAMGF1 # F1 pic.twitter.com/N5qx3m6913
– Jennie Gow (@JennieGow) May 28, 2022
The last 20 minutes saw “a lot of traffic,” as Hamilton put it. Verstappen was prevented by Zhou Guanyu, the commissioners investigated that while Sebastian Vettel had a moment with Sainz, he described as “scared”, no investigation said the commissioners. Russell had a “crikey” moment with Perez, adding that he “almost crashed into him” and Stroll cut through the wall and “stung” with a damaged wing.
The FP3 finished with Pérez the fastest with a time of 1: 12.476, but was only slightly ahead of Leclerc, the Ferrari driver at 0.041 seconds of pace. Sainz was third ahead of Verstappen, Gasly and Norris.
Hamilton was Mercedes’ best driver in seventh place ahead of Kevin Magnussen, Russell and Alonso.
Time
1 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1: 12,476 27 laps2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 0.041 s 29 laps3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 0.370 s 28 laps4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 0.405 s 29 laps5 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 0.734 s 22 laps 90. Lando Hamilton 9 Lewis McLaren 90. s 26 laps8 Kevin Magnussen Haas 0.960s 24 laps9 George Russell Mercedes 1.000s 26 laps10 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1.109s 23 laps11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1.169s 25 laps12 Mick Schumacher Haas 1.350s 26 laps 1.355 Vals Martins 1.35123 Vals Martins Racing 1.373s 25 laps15 Alex Albon Williams 1,406s 22 laps16 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1,628s 29 laps17 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1,784s 22 laps18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 2,163s 20 laps19 Alfa Romeo Earnings42 20 laps 13 Alfa Romeo Earnings42.