FP3 Report: Sainz causes red flag, as Verstappen tops final practice

Max Verstappen finished on top of the final free practice session on Saturday, as he was closly followed by Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso. Who were within three tenths and then 1.3 seconds behind when the rain started to fall heavily bringing a slightly early end to the on track running.

Rain pauses and times drop

The session started with a soaked track, that saw the drivers all come out on the extreme wet tyres. But with a pause in the rain meant the water was dislodged quickly and we saw times drop, and it become Inter conditions. Standouts from Alonso, who kept finding himself towards the top of the table, with Ocon, Tsunoda, Verstappn and Hulkenberg all spend time at the top. While it was probably Ferrari who adapted to the intermediates the best, as they sat 1-2 after the opening 20 minutes.

Rain stays away and Sainz creates headlines

Although the threat of the rain returning stayed over the heads of the paddock. It didn't come down yet. Times kept dropping as we saw the Ferrari's to continue to work well working their way to second and third throughout the next 10 minutes. Although it would be Carlos Sainz who garneded two seperate incidnets, firstly being noted for impeeding Alex Albon going into the final chichance, which could give him a grid drop for tomorrow's race. While it was just a few minutes later that the Spaniard would spin out and crash his red Ferrari into turn one, as he spun and hit the barrier with quite some force. Bringing out the red flag.

Final minutes creates scramble

With 20 minutes left to go when the green flag came back out, there was a bit of a scramble to go out and set a good lap time. This included George Russell, Alex Albon, and Alonso once again, all who put themselves into the top six one after each other. Albon partcular deserving plaudits for having his Williams sit fifth for a considerable amount of time.

Verstappen continued his hot streak, setting fast lap after fast lap. Going 1.6 seconds ahead of second place and staying there until Leclerc moved with in two tenths with 10 minutes left. As the incoming rain loomed threatning bring conditions back down and slowing the track back up again. And once the rain fell it did bring the end to most of the on track running for the session as the track became too wet to be worth venturing out.