FP3: Vettel leads Ferrari charge ahead of qualifying

F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Sebastian Vettel topped the times in the third and final practice session, ahead of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix. His Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc was a close second, with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton third fastest.

The session got off to a slow start, with nobody really eager to go out early. Robert Kubica was eventually the first one to do a timed lap, though he immediately locked up the front left wheel in the approach to Turn 1. Fortunately for him, he was using one of Friday's old soft sets.

It took about 20 minutes until the front runners showed up, with Verstappen the last one to venture out on track. 10 minutes later, it resulted in Ferrari topping the leader board, with Vettel fastest, just 0.039s ahead of team mate Leclerc. The Mercedes duo slotted into third and fourth, similarly on the back of some soft tyre runs. Verstappen and Gasly used the medium tyres and were around a second down on the pace setter.

The times were sharepened when a new set of softs were taken into use, but as Mercedes got closer, it was still Ferrari who retained the advantage. And once again, it was Leclerc who proved fastest, until Vettel found another little bit after a few attempts.

Using softs, Verstappen and Gasly got stuck at around 1s while Daniel Ricciardo slotted into 7th at the very end. Lando Norris made sure McLaren was present in the top 10, reversing the order from Friday when Carlos Sainz was clearly the faster McLaren.

Sergio Perez and Daniil Kvyat completed the top 10.

The second Racing Point car of Lance Stroll wasn't seen again after his installation lap which he completed with smoke coming out of the back of his car. The home hera therefore completed the session without a timed lap.