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Bottas leads Mercedes one-two as Mercedes dominate FP3 in Qatar
Mercedes stamped their authority on the Qatar Grand Prix weekend, as Valterri Bottas led a Silver Arrows one-two with Lewis Hamilton just behind, with Max Verstappen their nearest rival.
Valtteri Bottas has been on top form even if his results don't show it lately, and he continued his form from Friday where he topped FP2. His time of 1:23.310 was fast enough to top the session with Hamilton just 0.078,
Max Verstappen could only manage P3 as the Red Bull team spent a lot of time working on the Dutchman's car throughout the session. There was a particular focus on the rear-wing of the Red Bull, which caused Verstappen to spend a considerable amount of time in the garage during the second half of the session. He put in a late lap to leapfrog Sergio Perez, but it wasn't fast enough to really challenge the Mercedes, 0.341 behind Hamilton.
With all eyes on the front two teams, Pierre Gasly was able to finish P4 which will give Honda and Red Bull some hope, with their Alpha Tauri team performing well. Sergio Perez was P5, and Carlos Sainz was P6, the Spaniard continuing to impress for Ferrari as they made their mark this weekend in their dual with McLaren.
Fernando Alonso (P7), Esteban Ocon (P8) completed a good session for Alpine with Charles Leclerc (P9) and Yuki Tsunoda closing out the top ten. George Russell was 14th as he approaches his final three races for Williams.