Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time in third practice but a crash by Sergey Sirotkin disrupted the final minutes of running before today’s qualifying session.
The Ferrari driver’s best effort of 1’43.091 did not improve on the quickest time set by his team mate Kimi Raikkonen yesterday. Most drivers did not lower their times despite almost all of them using the ultra-soft tyres for much of the session.
Lewis Hamilton chipped away at his time to end up second fastest, within four-tenths of a second of the Ferrari. Behind him were three drivers covered by little more than a tenth of a second: Raikkonen, Max Verstappen (enjoying his smoothest session of the weekend so far) and Valtteri Bottas.
Friday pace-setter Daniel Ricciardo was only 12th fastest. All four Mercedes-powered drivers feature in the top 10 despite Sirotkin’s crash, which occurred at the exit of turn three with just under 10 minutes left to run in the session.
Kevin Magnussen continued to demonstrate the potential of the Haas with seventh-fastest time. But team mate Romain Grosjean was still unhappy with the balance of his car, spinning twice and reporting various balance complaints on the radio.
The Renault drivers languished towards the bottom of the times having spent much of the session on the harder super-soft tyres. Brendon Hartley propped up the times sheets having locked up at one point while avoiding Vettel’s Ferrari.
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Third practice visual gaps
Sebastian Vettel – 1’43.091
+0.361 Lewis Hamilton – 1’43.452
+0.402 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’43.493
+0.428 Max Verstappen – 1’43.519
+0.478 Valtteri Bottas – 1’43.569
+0.845 Sergio Perez – 1’43.936
+0.867 Kevin Magnussen – 1’43.958
+1.032 Lance Stroll – 1’44.123
+1.129 Esteban Ocon – 1’44.220
+1.443 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’44.534
+1.672 Fernando Alonso – 1’44.763
+1.770 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’44.861
+1.814 Pierre Gasly – 1’44.905
+2.127 Charles Leclerc – 1’45.218
+2.170 Romain Grosjean – 1’45.261
+2.341 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’45.432
+2.365 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’45.456
+2.414 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’45.505
+2.819 Marcus Ericsson – 1’45.910
+3.095 Brendon Hartley – 1’46.186
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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Complete practice times
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’44.277 | 1’42.795 | 1’44.861 | +2.066 | 76 |
| 2 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’46.861 | 1’42.864 | 1’43.493 | +0.629 | 60 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’45.559 | 1’42.911 | 1’43.519 | +0.608 | 55 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’46.513 | 1’44.127 | 1’43.091 | -1.036 | 73 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’45.200 | 1’43.603 | 1’43.452 | -0.151 | 71 |
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’44.242 | 1’43.570 | 1’43.569 | -0.001 | 71 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’46.465 | 1’43.700 | 1’44.763 | +1.063 | 71 |
| 8 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’45.237 | 1’43.814 | 1’44.220 | +0.406 | 70 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’48.741 | 1’43.834 | 1’45.432 | +1.598 | 62 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’45.075 | 1’44.142 | 1’43.936 | -0.206 | 66 |
| 11 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’47.434 | 1’43.977 | 1’43.958 | -0.019 | 58 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’46.749 | 1’44.091 | 1’45.456 | +1.365 | 55 |
| 13 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’46.590 | 1’44.459 | 1’44.123 | -0.336 | 65 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’46.856 | 1’44.425 | 1’45.261 | +0.836 | 62 |
| 15 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’46.480 | 1’45.007 | 1’44.534 | -0.473 | 70 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’46.492 | 1’44.712 | 1’44.905 | +0.193 | 73 |
| 17 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’46.875 | 1’44.940 | 1’45.218 | +0.278 | 66 |
| 18 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’46.747 | 1’45.051 | 1’46.186 | +1.135 | 79 |
| 19 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’47.967 | 1’45.288 | 1’45.505 | +0.217 | 63 |
| 20 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’47.073 | 1’46.042 | 1’45.910 | -0.132 | 47 |
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