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Turkish GP: Gasly leads Red Bull duo in wet FP3; Russell causes red flag

  • Darshan Chokhani
    • F1, Turkish GP, Pierre Gasly

    ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 09: Pierre Gasly of France driving the (10) Scuderia AlphaTauri AT02 Honda during final practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Turkey at Intercity Istanbul Park on October 09, 2021 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202110090169 // Usage for editorial use only //

    AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly ended up fastest in a wet FP3 of F1 Turkish GP ahead of the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

    As was expected of the weather, it did rain around the start of the FP3 session, which left the track wet enough for the drivers to use the full wets to start off and then switch to the intermediate compound. There was chatter of slicks, but it didn’t happen.

    Despite his early spin at Turn 11, AlphaTauri’s Gasly did enough to set the pace with a 1m30.477s lap to head Red Bull pair of Verstappen (1m30.611s) and Perez (1m30.684s), where the Dutchman got ahead of the Mexican in the dying moments of the session.

    Perez had a moment of blocking AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda earlier in the session, but readily raised his hands, while teammate Verstappen had a 360 spin at Turn 11 – the same corner where Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton had a moment before him.

    Behind the Top 3 were the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz (1m31.262s) and Charles Leclerc (1m31.543s), where the latter had a spin at Turn 9. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso (1m31.545s) was sixth as he had an off moment at Turn 1, much like Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi.

    His teammate Kimi Raikkonen (1m31.572s) ended up seventh after a late improvement, with Tsunoda (1m31.981s) in eighth from Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (1m31.996s) and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (1m32.089s) in the Top 10.

    Alfa Romeo will have to see the stewards after Raikkonen was released in front of Haas’ Mick Schumacher in the pits, who ended up a good 13th behind Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel. The latter had a spin at Turn 9, much like Leclerc.

    McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was 14th from teammate Lando Norris, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in 16th from Haas’ Nikita Mazepin, who had a similar spin like Gasly at Turn 11. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was 18th after completing only five laps.

    Williams’ Nicholas Latifi was 19th with teammate George Russell in 20th but not having set a lap time after an off at Turn 1, where he got beached into the gravel. The Brit also caused a brief red flag period.

    Here’s what happened on Friday of F1 Turkish GP