Formula 1

Hamilton crashes, Red Bull 1-2 in final Monaco practice

by Josh Suttill
2 min read

Max Verstappen topped the final Formula 1 practice session before qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton crashed his upgraded Mercedes, bringing the session to a premature end.


Key moments:

> Late red flag as Hamilton crashes

> Verstappen fastest…but only by a narrow margin

> Top 16 covered by one second

> Magnussen stops Haas on track


Hamilton had an uncharacteristic crash with just over five minutes of FP3 remaining when he lost control of his W14 at Mirabeau right after setting the fastest first sector time.

That caused a red flag and the session wasn’t resumed, preventing a flurry of late laps and leaving Verstappen as the final practice pacesetter on a 1m12.776s.

He was 0.073s faster than Red Bull team-mate and defending Monaco GP winner Sergio Perez.

The top three was completed by the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, who was just 0.166s slower than Verstappen.

Stroll’s team-mate Fernando Alonso ended up 14th after he was denied a late flying lap by both Hamilton’s crash and Kevin Magnussen bringing his Haas to a halt just before Portier – an incident that triggered a virtual safety car period that only ended a few minutes before the red flag.

Prior to stopping Magnussen spent a minute slowly multiple-point turning his way out of the Ste Devote escape road.

The other major drama in the session was Esteban Ocon briefly stopping his Alpine on track in the tunnel early in FP3 but he managed to restart his car and went on to set the ninth-fastest time.

Behind the Red Bulls and Stroll came the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was sixth ahead of home hero Leclerc and Hamilton who was eighth, with team-mate George Russell in 11th, having got away with a “hefty” impact against the outside wall entering La Rascasse.

The top 10 was rounded out by Ocon and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.

Practice 3 Results

Pos Name Car Best Time Gap Leader
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1m12.776s
2 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1m12.849s +0.073s
3 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 1m12.942s +0.166s
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1m13.261s +0.485s
5 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1m13.396s +0.62s
6 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Renault 1m13.453s +0.677s
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1m13.475s +0.699s
8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m13.486s +0.71s
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 1m13.496s +0.72s
10 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1m13.521s +0.745s
11 George Russell Mercedes 1m13.59s +0.814s
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1m13.624s +0.848s
13 Nico Hülkenberg Haas-Ferrari 1m13.65s +0.874s
14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Mercedes 1m13.697s +0.921s
15 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT 1m13.738s +0.962s
16 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1m13.772s +0.996s
17 Logan Sargeant Williams-Mercedes 1m13.851s +1.075s
18 Alex Albon Williams-Mercedes 1m13.93s +1.154s
19 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1m13.998s +1.222s
20 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT 1m14.187s +1.411s
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