Norris fires a warning shot for qualifying by smashing the record lap time

On Norris' impressive lap, the British driver attacked the kerbs aggressively. He was riding over them at high speed and bouncing around the track. In comparison, Verstappen avoided the kerbs on his best lap as the Red Bull Racing car couldn't seem to handle the same aggressive nature. With just seven rounds remaining and a 59-point gap to bridge, Norris needs to maximise most weekends to stand a chance.

Norris might have another opportunity to take a big chunk out of Verstappen's lead, with the Dutchman finishing behind Russell and Piastri in FP3. The Ferrari looked strong on Friday, but it was a different story on Saturday. Leclerc sent an alarming message over the team radio as they finished P5 and P6. Mercedes once again struggled, with Hamilton being 1.2 seconds behind. Russell did finish second fastest but often found himself in the run-off zones as he had to battle the car. Alarm bells will be ringing for Red Bull, with Sergio Perez down in P15.

What happened during FP3?

Not much running occurred in the opening 10 minutes, though there was an eventful on-track moment. A lizard worked its way onto the circuit and caused a red flag, which resulted in a marshal chasing the lizard. As the track cleaned up, more front runners came out and lifted the pace. Verstappen went to the top of the leaderboard and reported improvements over the team radio. However, he still wanted his engineers to improve the car's rear. 

Russell looked likely to beat Verstappen's time but made a mistake in the second part of the lap. He still ended up only two-tenths shy of Verstappen's time. Norris got even closer, but Leclerc was the first to replace the Dutchman at the top of the standings. Sainz backed up Ferrari's pace on the medium tyre by almost matching Leclerc's best.

The soft tyres came on with 20 minutes remaining, and Russell was the first to go to the top of the standings. His time was knocked off when Norris went and set the lap record.