No sooner had the third free practice started than the red flag was being waved. Nikita Mazepin, already plagued by a chassis change yesterday, wanted to make a lot of meters and immediately hit the track. Ten meters after the exit of the pitlane, however, he had to stop his Haas car due to engine problems.
After a five-minute delay while his car was removed, training was allowed to resume. The training was in daylight, so conditions were not very representative of qualifying or race conditions, both of which will be run under artificial light shortly after sunset. Still, it was an important session, as it was the last before qualifying.
It took a while before we saw the toppers come onto the track. After fifteen minutes it was the Mercedes drivers who took to the track. After two attempts on the red belt, Hamilton clocked a 1:23.1. Teammate Valtteri Bottas conceded 0.2 seconds.
With 34 minutes to go, Max Verstappen was the last driver to take the
job came up. He managed in his first attempt at the red belt, including
flapping DRS wing, immediately doing what his Mercedes rival took two tries and was just faster than Hamilton.
However, there was a third attempt by the Mercedes drivers, who both dived half a second below their own time, with Bottas as the fastest: 1:22.5. Verstappen also improved, but had to concede four tenths to the Mercedes duo.
Sergio Perez was then faster than his Dutch teammate. Pierre Gasly also showed his best side, was faster than Verstappen, but his time was taken away because he ignored a track limit.
In the last fifteen minutes we did see images of Verstappen, but mainly images of his mechanics working on his car. The rear wing of the Red Bull driver remains a concern and they could not solve it during VT3.
With five minutes left on the clock, Verstappen was able to go out one last time on a new set of red tires to make one last attempt to get close to the Mercedes drivers. He managed to set two personal best sectors, but he still has to give up 0.3 seconds on the way to qualifying on both Mercedes drivers.
Hamilton and Bottas therefore seem to go to qualifying as favorites. As mentioned before, it is driven in different circumstances, namely just after sunset. In whose favor that is, will be revealed later this Saturday. Race simulations were not completed during this training.
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