Red flag and red car at the front: Leclerc tops morning session on Day 3

With also testing his new front wing, Max Verstappen finished in P4 ahead of Jack Doohan and Alexander Albon. Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar finished seventh, and Fernando Alonso finished in P8 after replacing Lance Stroll this morning. Two rookies, Gabriel Bortoleto and Oliver Bearman, completed the Top 10.

Hadjar completed the most laps so far today, with 73. Leclerc did 66, while Norris and Verstappen finished with 57 and 47 respectively.

As it happened

Defending champion Verstappen was first on track on Friday morning, followed by Isack Hadjar’s Racing Bulls and others out of the pit lane. Within the first ten minutes, it was Alonso who first had problems. The Spaniard was not planned to run this morning, but Lance Stroll ‘wasn’t feeling 100%’, Aston Martin reported. After returning to the pit lane, Alonso had to stop ahead of re-entering the track, and was trollied back to his garage. He was already out on track within 10 minutes after.

The two-time world champion was not the only one who had issues. A part of Bearman’s engine cover began to come off 30 minutes into the session, as he was about to start a lap. The Briton slowed down and brought his car back to the pit lane. A small part also fell off, and as a result, the yellow flag was waved briefly so a marshal can collect that from the track.

After the first hour, Charles Leclerc led the session with a 1:30.8, ahead of Antonelli and Verstappen. By this time, Norris was yet set a lap time. 

Forty minutes later, the Briton began to push more, and had a hairy moment into Turn 4, but luckily for McLaren, he managed to catch his car in time. He briefly stopped on track as the yellow flag was waved, but had no damage. Moments later, there was another brief yellow flag, because a marshal’s chair flew on an exit road thanks to the wind.

Five minutes before the halfway point, Hadjar also had a smaller moment exiting Turn 2, and he was not happy with that. The rookie waved his hand around in the cockpit in frustration. With two hours to go, Leclerc still lead the session ahead of Antonelli with the same fastest time, while Norris got up to P3.

Entering the final hour, the Top 3 remained unchanged. Antonelli also completed his first ‘overtake’ in F1, as he got past Albon into Turn 8, although the Williams driver did not put up much of a fight. Over the course of the final hour, he also flew past Leclerc’s Ferrari on the main straight.

With 47 minutes to go, a strange red flag incident happened, as glass shattered on the start-finish box. The session could resume with 36 minutes to go. Partially down to the windy conditions, no one improved on Leclerc’s quickest lap time this final hour either.