Gasly tops third Baku F1 practice, Verstappen crashes

Pierre Gasly was quickest in final practice ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as championship leader Max Verstappen crashed into the barriers and lost over 30 minutes of running ahead of Formula 1 qualifying.

Key moments:

> Gasly quickest for AlphaTauri, ahead of Perez
> Hamilton posts late lap to jump to P3, Bottas 13th
> Verstappen crashes at Turn 15, causes a red flag
> Numerous yellow flags disrupt qualifying simulations
> Russell stops with engine issues

The AlphaTauris of Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda ran 1-2 at the top of the leaderboard until the final 12 minutes of the session where they were displaced by a flurry of late improvers.

But Gasly went for a late flying lap himself and went fastest on a 1m42.251s to top the session, 0.344 seconds ahead of the Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

Perez’s team-mate Verstappen locked up on the entry into the Turn 15 left-hander earlier in the session, struggling for grip on the hard tyres and nosing his Red Bull into the barriers. He damaged the front-right of his RB16B, ending his FP3 with over half of the time remaining.

Max Verstappen hits the barriers at Turn 15!

The session is now red flagged, as he waits to be recovered#AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 #F1 pic.twitter.com/fctlA16Nfz

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 5, 2021

The session was red-flagged while the marshals recovered his car. Verstappen would fall to 15th by the end of the one-hour session.

Title rivals Mercedes continued to struggle for pace in Baku, spending the majority of the session outside the top 10 before Hamilton posted a last-minute flying lap to jump to P3 – assisted by a big tow in the final sector from Perez.

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His team-mate Valtteri Bottas struggled, registering the 13th-fastest time and admitting the set-up changes in the session “didn’t make any difference”.

The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were fourth- and fifth-quickest, with the latter surviving a moment at Turn 15 where he ran down the escape road and avoided the barriers.

Lando Norris was sixth-fastest for McLaren, ahead of Fernando Alonso (Alpine), Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren).

George Russell was forced to stop his Williams in the dying moments of FP3 with engine issues. Russell has a new Mercedes power unit weekend.

"No power, no gears. It's just died"

George Russell comes to a stop with oil leaking out of the back of his car#AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 #F1 pic.twitter.com/J7zIsjKa9l

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 5, 2021

Nikita Mazepin brushed the wall on the exit of Turn 15 with just over 10 minutes of the session remaining. He continued but had to pit for repairs at the end of the lap and ended up as the slowest of all in 20th place.

Practice 3 Results