FP3: Russell pipped Leclerc to lead interrupted final practice at Baku
Having endured power unit issues on Friday, Mercedes driver George Russell bounced back to head the final one-hour practice at Baku. F1Technical's lead journalist Balazs Szabo reports on Free Practice 3.
Despite three red flags during Friday's opening practice, drivers were in no rush to head out on to the challenging Baku street track, with most of them spending the opening stages of the final one-hour session in their garages.
With 15 minutes into the session, the practice was red-flagged after Esteban Ocon came to a halt between Turns 17 and 18. The Frenchman had to have a precautionary PU change yesterday after a MGU-H issue was detected, so he has already missed nearly all of the first session.
Just a few minutes after the session was restarted, the red flag was out again, this time for Oliver Bearman. Ferrari's junior driver, who is replacing Kevin Magnussen this weekend, crashed at Turn 1.
The Briton overcooked it into the first corner, and was not able to bail out early enough to use the run off area The result was a strange half-bail, where he tried to slide down into the run off area and instead caught the barriers with his front left.
With only 21 minutes left on the clock when the session continued, drivers were eager to get mileage under their belt ahead of the all-important qualifying session.
Having sustained engine woes in yesterday's opening practice, George Russell put his earlier issues to one side and charged to the top of the timesheets on a 1m42.514s, narrowly beating Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Lando Norris indicated yesterday that McLaren were "three or four tenths" adrift of the field-leading Red Bull and Ferrari at Baku. However, he bounced back in final practice to end up third quickest, with his team-mate Oscar Piastri ending up fourth.
Championship leader Max Verstappen was dominant in the middle part of the track, but he continued to lose a big chunk of time down the start-finish straight, and that saw him finish fifth fastest.
His team-mate Sergio Perez looked very quick yesterday, but he was half a second down in final practice which was only enough for P7. The Mexican had another tangle with Carlos Sainz, who had to cut across the apex of a corner to avoid a late braking Perez. The Spanish driver ended up sixth quickest in final practice, having been four tenths of a second slower than his team-mate.
Following a tough opening day at Baku, Williams displayed eye-catching speed in final practice, with Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto ending up eighth and ninth quickest.
Lewis Hamilton was 10th in the other Mercedes, followed by the Aston Martin and RB machines of Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo, and the remaining Alpine and Haas cars of Pierre Gasly and Hulkenberg.
Kick Sauber pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu wound up 17th and 18th respectively, from the sidelined Ocon and Bearman,
