Max Verstappen led Sergio Perez very closely in FP3 of F1 Monaco GP, as Lance Stroll popped up to third.
It was another hectic FP3 session in F1 Monaco GP, but ran mostly cleanly until the last few minutes when Haas’ Kevin Magnussen first went deep at Turn 1 and then was asked by his team to stop the car on the approach to the tunnel to cause a Virtual Safety Car.
Not before the marshals cleaned it up quickly, there was a red flag for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton after a barrier tap when he was on a fast lap. The session ended under red flag leaving the Red Bull pair on top with Verstappen on top with a 1m12.776s lap.
He was only 0.073s quicker than Perez, as Aston Martin’s Stroll rounded out the Top 3. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fourth after FP2 shunt, with McLaren’s Lando Norris doing well in fifth. He kept the pace he showed on Friday despite not being 100% in-sync.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was sixth from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who did not have a clean session after not only brushing the barrier but complaining about the car bouncing too. Mercedes’ Hamilton was seventh before his crash with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in ninth.
The Frenchman stopped early on inside the tunnel but got going with the mechanics fixing the issue quickly to send him out. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas kept his pace as well to be 10th from Mercedes’ George Russell, who also had a brush with the barrier.
Haas’ Magnussen was 12th from teammate Nico Hulkenberg, as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was 14th after he couldn’t improve on his time. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda complained of brake issues to be 15th from Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.
Williams’ Logan Sargeant was another on the complain list in 17th, but ahead of teammate Alexander Albon who talked about brakes too. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri’s tough run continued with AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries in 20th.
In a strange situation, Guanyu was fined four times for speeding in pitlane with speeds of 63.0 km/h, 62.5 km/h, 61.0 km/h and 60.2 km/h. For the first two, it was a fine of 300 euros each and for the latter two it was 100 euros each to make it a total of 800.
Sargeant was found to sped two times with speeds of 61.1 km/h and 60.1 km/h where he was fined 200 euros and 100 euros respectively. Speeding from Hamilton saw a massive hit of 65.5 km/h where he was fined by 600 euros.
FP3 CLASSIFICATION
Verstappen edges out team mate Perez ahead of qualifying 👀#MonacoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/t3byuDdVo9
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 27, 2023
Here’s new PU elements detail: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Monaco%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20New%20PU%20elements%20for%20this%20Competition_0.pdf
Here’s what all said after Friday in F1 Monaco GP