Lewis Hamilton pulled a storming lap out of the bag to top the final practice session ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen bounced back from his Friday woes to claim P2, while there were further dramas for Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu.
Lewis Hamilton sets daunting benchmark at Canadian Grand Prix.
With just five minutes of the session gone and plenty of learning to do on a dry track, Zhou brought out the red flags for the second time this race weekend, losing control of his Sauber out of Turn 1 and sliding backwards into the barriers. His fellow drivers will have been relieved as the delay proved brief.
As the session approached its halfway point, it was Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who mastered the tricky FP2 conditions, who once more sat atop the timings in the dry, RB’s Daniel Ricciardo holding P2 just over three tenths adrift.
But it was Hamilton who delivered that P1 time, in style, his 1:12.549 on the soft tyres putting him 0.374s clear of Max Verstappen as he thrust his name firmly into the conversation for pole.
FP3 timings
1 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes 1:12.549
2 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing +0.374
3 George RUSSELL Mercedes +0.408
4 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +0.477
5 Oscar PIASTRI McLaren +0.717
6 Daniel RICCIARDO RB +0.730
7 Lando NORRIS McLaren +0.744
8 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +0.791
9 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +0.793
10 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +0.800
11 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas F1 Team +0.890
12 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +1.021
13 Valtteri BOTTAS Kick Sauber +1.093
14 Logan SARGEANT Williams +1.114
15 Yuki TSUNODA RB +1.167
16 Pierre GASLY Alpine +1.188
17 Nico HULKENBERG Haas F1 Team +1.228
18 Alexander ALBON Williams +1.331
19 Esteban OCON Alpine +1.526
20 Guanyu ZHOU Kick Sauber +6.107