Verstappen tops FP3 ahead of Mercedes

Max Verstappen pounded his fist on the table in FP3 by putting up a 1:31.300, seven tenths quicker than Valtteri Bottas.

As the final practice session of the weekend got underway, it was over 10 minutes before any car came onto the track. The first was Mazepin followed by his teammate Mick Schumacher.

Mazepin was also the first driver to make a mistake on the slippery Paul Ricard circuit. The Russian spun and went onto the very rough red stripes off the track. He inevitably had to come into the pits due to his tires being flat-spotted and therefore ruined.

Bottas took the early lead in the session by six tenths to his teammate, after a chassis swap between him and Hamilton. It wasn’t long until Verstappen put his fast lap in, going only eight thousandths quicker than his Finnish opponent. Red Bull stayed late into the night to fix Verstappen’s rear wing issues, and the work has seemingly paid off. The Dutch impressed in Sectors 1 and 3, eclipsing Mercedes’ times.

Daniel Riccardo looked to have his fortunes change as he was able to put some good laps, his McLaren team breaking the curfew yesterday to change his gearbox.

As the session drew on, quicker and quicker lap times were being posted and Verstappen went three tenths quicker only to have that lap time deleted. Sebastian Vettel was one of the two drivers who went out on the white-striped hard tires to do a race program. His teammate Lance Stroll was the only other.

The session came to an end with Verstappen posting a wonderful lap where it all came together, going seven-tenths quicker than Bottas. Sainz also impressed with a P3.

The session results followed as so: