RECAP: Gasly tops Turkish GP FP3 standings

Pierre Gasly has been the quickest driver in a wet third practice session at Istanbul Park.

Rain was a concern ahead of Saturday’s sessions at Istanbul Park. In fact, it was raining at the start of the final free practice. The teams did not want to risk with a couple of hours left before qualifying, so there was not much activity on the track straightaway.

After a 7-minute wait, we saw the first cars on the race track – those were AlphaTauri teammates Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda. They were later joined by the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo. As the track conditions were improving, more cars left the pit lane.

Carlos Sainz was in the lead of the session after the first outings. The track kept drying up, so lap times were improving. Norris decided to switch to intermediate tires, but he was still not able to catch the Spaniard. At the same time, Gasly lost the rear of his car in the final sector and came back to the pits. Nikita Mazepin had a similar incident in the same section.

George Russell’s practice ended early as he went into the gravel and stuck – the session was suspended. Shortly after, the racing action was resumed.

Lewis Hamilton finally completed his first flying lap of the day and it got him to P1. However, Max Verstappen beat the Briton’s lap time by more than a second. A bit later, he has a 360 degrees spin in the middle sector of the track.

Valtteri Bottas took over the lead in the practice, while Esteban Ocon also went quicker than Verstappen. The Dutchman, however, responded with an even quicker time.

Honda-powered cars overall were quick on Saturday afternoon as Gasly and Perez occupied the top 2 positions in the standings, while Verstappen went to the garage.

There was not much action in the final minutes, though Verstappen beat Perez’s result and got to P2. Gasly remained upfront and was the fastest in the final practice.

The results of the Formula 1 Turkish GP FP3: