FP3: Perez tops final practice to demonstrate Red Bull’s dominance in Baku

Monaco race winner Sergio Perez outpaced Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to high the ultimate observe for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with championship chief Max Verstappen ending the session third quickest.

FP3 was delayed by quarter-hour whereas barrier restore works have been carried out at Flip 1 following a crash in an earlier F2 race.

When the session acquired going, the vast majority of the sphere rolled out of the storage on Pirelli’s red-walled smooth compound. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc led the sphere initially, however Max Verstappen snatched the lead away when he joined the monitor after spending the primary twenty minutes of the session within the Crimson Bull storage.

In preparation for the qualifying session, all the subject opted for the smooth rubber for the second run. The Crimson Bull seemed fast as soon as once more, setting the tempo not solely within the final sector, however exhibiting nice velocity by way of the slower sections of the primary half of the lap as nicely.

Ultimately, it was Sergio Perez who set the benchmark of the session, posting a time of 1m43.170s with Leclerc 70 1000’s of a second adrift of the Mexican. Verstappen ended up solely third quickest, albeit his final flying lap that might have seen him fly to the highest of the leaderboard was hindered by heavy site visitors within the center sector. Carlos Sainz took 4th as he appeared to lack tempo to his three direct rivals.

McLaren impressed within the closing observe with its improved tempo. Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo completed fifth and sixth quickest, albeit the hole to Perez’s benchmark was over 1.2s.

There was nothing to decide on between the drivers of the midfield. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly headed one of the best of the remainder behind the McLaren duo, however he was intently adopted by the Mercedes, Alpine Aston Martin drivers.

Regardless of his robust exhibiting on Friday, Fernando Alonso struggled for tempo within the closing observe, ending solely in 11, virtually two tenths of a second behind his staff mate Esteban Ocon.

His former staff mate Lewis Hamilton additionally had a tough time within the final 60-minute observe with the Briton ending up twelfth quickest immediately behind Alonso. Nonetheless, there may be extra to return from the seven-time world champion as his race engineer Peter Bonnington confirmed over the radio that Hamilton was utilizing a decrease engine mode to spare the facility unit.

Simply as yesterday, Haas and Alfa Romeo seemed to be off the tempo in Baku with Zhou Guanyu, Kevin Magnussen, Mick Schumacher and Valtteri Bottas ending the session in P14, P15, P18 and P19. Williams driver Alexander Albon took seventeenth along with his staff mate Nicholas Latifi rounding out the leaderboard.