Photo: Red Bull Media House

F1 Saudi Arabia FP3 Report: Verstappen claims practice hat-trick

It was Max Verstappen who topped the timesheets in the final practice session ahead of qualifying in Jeddah.

The top three consisted of what might be the new familiar top spot holders, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso.

The session started slow with just the Aston Martins taking to the track, and having over 10 minutes of track time just for themselves, allowing them to gather that extra bit of data and getting in some practice pit stops.

Perez saw some mechanical work being done to his car at the start of the session, but still put in some decent runs and saw him finish second on the timesheets just over six-tenths behind teammate Verstappen.

Alonso completed the top three ahead of his teammate Lance Stroll who finished the session in fourth, showing Aston Martin is continuing to stay at the front of the field.

All the teams did a lot of experimenting throughout the session trying out the different compounds of tyres, but it was the soft tyre which proved to be the quickest and most popular in the session.

The Mercedes were quiet in the final session, but Lewis Hamilton came in with fifth place and George Russell finished just out of the top ten coming in 11th.

Nyck De Vries missed out on the final session as the AlphaTauri driver takes on power unit change, meaning the rookie missed out on some crucial runs as the only driver not to of raced out in Jeddah.

Both McLarens made it to the top 10 places with Lando Norris in seventh followed closely by rookie teammate Oscar Piastri.

The Ferraris took P6 and P10 after suffering some interrupted lap runs due to traffic, however, Charles Leclerc is set to take on a 10-place grid penalty.

 With just a couple of hours to go until qualifying who will end up taking pole?

 

Here is how the top then finished at the end of the third practice session:

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