AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly tops F1 Azerbaijan GP FP3 from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, in a scrappy session.
It was not a clean F1 Azerbaijan GP FP3 with lots of offs causing yellow flag interruption, which included a red flag for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The Dutchman crashed at Turn 15 early in the session, which left him with no running for half of the session.
The scrappy run saw AlphaTauri’s Gasly maintain his pace all-through the FP3 session, to top the timesheet with a 1m42.251s lap, as he led Red Bull’s Perez (1m42.595s) and Mercedes’ Hamilton (1m42.697s), who had a massive tow on his lap to be third.
Hamilton had an off after the session, as he led the Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc (1m42.778s) and Carlos Sainz (1m43.006s) in fourth and fifth, with McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m43.011s) sixth from Alpine’s Fernando Alonso (1m43.080s).
There was an off for Sainz on his fast lap, while Leclerc’s first fast lap was hampered by a yellow flag. The Top 10 had AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m43.244s) in eighth from Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (1m43.294s) and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m43.557s).
Missing out on a Top 10 were the Aston Martin duo with Sebastian Vettel 11th from Lance Stroll, where a late improvement pushed Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas to 13th. The estimated help from a tow that Hamilton got was about six-tenths, which the Finn did not have.
There were offs Tsunoda, Vettel and Bottas in the session, as Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen was 14th from Verstappen. Williams’ Nicholas Latifi was 16th from Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and the other Williams of George Russell.
Latifi had an off, while Russell stopped to cause a Virtual Safety Car, after complaints of no power and gearbox. The order was rounded out by Haas’ Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, where the Russian had a brush with the barrier at Turn 15 exit.
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Here’s what happened on Friday of F1 Azerbaijan GP