FP3: Verstappen pips Leclerc in rain-soaked final practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen set the pace in the third and final practice, beating Charles Leclerc by just under three tenths of a second. F1Technical's Balázs Szabó reports on Free Practice 3 at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Just as predicted, the third and final practice took place in very challenging, wet conditions with the rain intensity picking up in the dying minutes of the session.

While the majority of the field started the session on Pirelli’s brand-new wet weather tyres that do not need pre-heating, conditions improved as cars started to dry out the asphalt of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, prompting drivers to swap from full wet tyres to intermediates.

The session saw the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen dictate the pace with the Dutchman setting the quickest lap in the end. Verstappen ended up 0.291s faster than the Monegasque, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso the next quickest driver, some 1.3s off the pace in third.

Kevin Magnussen put his Haas fourth with Sainz taking fifth in the end. Despite his encouraging pace, the Spaniard’s session ended prematurely as he spun off into the barriers at Turn 1. The incident caused the only red flag of FP3 and gave the Ferrari mechanics a huge work load as the SF-23 sustained heavy damage to both the front and rear-end.

After suffering an engine issue in the opening practice, Pierre Gasly appeared to be in promising form, taking 6th in the session with his team mate Esteban Ocon finishing down in P19.

Despite spinning on multiple occasions in the first half of the 60-minute session, Yuki Tsunoda put his AlphaTauri eighth while his teammate Nyck de Vries set the 16th quickest lap.

Red Bull’s Mexican driver Sergio Perez was among the frontrunners before the red flag, but he found himself down in a lowly 17th as he could not improve his best time when the track was in the best condition.

After finishing first and second in FP2 on Friday, Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team mate George Russell took 10th and 15th, respectively, with both drivers struggling to get temperatures into their tyres.