By Camille Lebez Leroy
The third and final practice session began with Sergio Perez being the first driver to leave the garage for Cadillac. After missing a lot of running on Friday because of technical problems, he completed installation laps on used medium tyres to check that everything was working properly.
Red Bull also had a difficult start to the weekend at their home race. Reliability problems affected both drivers in FP1, while Max Verstappen lost more track time in FP2 because of a seat issue. Even with several new upgrades on the car, including changes to the sidepods, front suspension and floor, the team still had work to do.
Perez continued working on his car after Friday’s issues. Cadillac also had a frustrating start to the weekend, especially as they had brought more upgrades than any other team. Most teams were expected to focus on qualifying pace in FP3 by using soft tyres, but because of the reliability problems on Friday, some teams also needed extra time to test their set-ups and complete longer runs.
After the first ten minutes, Nico Hulkenberg went out on soft tyres for Audi, while Franco Colapinto also used softs for Alpine. Isack Hadjar joined the track for Red Bull on hard tyres but still set the fastest lap with a time of 1:09.230, almost half a second quicker than Hulkenberg. Hadjar had also missed valuable running in FP1 after an engine problem.
Soon the track became much busier as more drivers left the pits. Lando Norris quickly moved to the top of the times on soft tyres with a lap of 1:07.832. Lewis Hamilton was second, while George Russell moved into fifth. Verstappen was the last driver to leave the garage, also on soft tyres. At this point, Perez, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were using medium tyres, while Hadjar stayed on the hard compound.
McLaren continued to look strong as Oscar Piastri moved into second, only 0.049 seconds behind Norris. However, Mercedes soon took control when Kimi Antonelli completed his first flying lap and immediately went fastest with a 1:07.533. Verstappen moved into second, while Norris dropped to third.
Charles Leclerc then improved to second place, looking much more comfortable than he had on Friday. Russell also found more speed and closed the gap to Antonelli, but Antonelli responded with an even quicker lap of 1:07.134 to stay comfortably in first place.
At the halfway point, Antonelli led Russell by four tenths of a second, a large gap around such a short circuit. Leclerc was third, ahead of Verstappen, Piastri and Norris. As the track gained more rubber and conditions improved, the teams prepared for their final qualifying simulation runs. However, the hot weather caused the soft tyres to lose grip more quickly, leading to mistakes. Carlos Sainz slid wide into the run-off area, showing how difficult the conditions had become.
For the final runs, every leading driver fitted a fresh set of soft tyres. Surprisingly, Antonelli could not improve his time and returned to the pits. Hamilton moved up to second, while Russell also improved but remained behind his teammate. Norris was fourth, Verstappen fifth and Leclerc lost time after running wide. Hadjar also made a mistake at Turn 3.
Antonelli returned to the track for another attempt, but his tyres were already three laps old. Further down the order, Racing Bulls continued to impress, with Liam Lawson eighth and Arvid Lindblad ninth. Pierre Gasly also had a better session, moving into tenth for Alpine.
Piastri improved to fourth after a second push lap, proving that the tyres could still perform. Antonelli, however, could not improve on his second set of tyres, leaving his earlier lap as his best effort. Russell then completed another fast lap on older tyres and finally moved to the top of the times by just 0.038 seconds, the first time he had been faster than Antonelli all weekend.
As the session ended, Colapinto improved to 14th, Hadjar climbed to eighth and Esteban Ocon stayed in 16th. Russell finished fastest with a lap of 1:07.096, ahead of Antonelli and Hamilton. Antonelli’s earlier lap remained impressive because it was set before the track reached its best conditions.
Mercedes looked extremely strong heading into qualifying, with both Russell and Antonelli showing excellent pace. Ferrari also appeared more competitive than on Friday, as Hamilton finished only 0.115 seconds behind Russell in third place. Leclerc ended the session seventh and still seemed less comfortable than his teammate, even though his earlier brake problems had been fixed.
McLaren remained close to the front, with Piastri finishing fourth and Norris just behind him in fifth. However, with Mercedes leading and Ferrari showing better pace, it remained to be seen whether McLaren could challenge for pole position later in qualifying.
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