Monaco GP FP3 – Everything you need to know

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen led Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr by 0.047s in the third and final Monaco Grand Prix practice session, with Formula 1 points leader Lewis Hamilton only seventh.

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Key moments

– Verstappen heads Ferrari duo

– Lead Mercedes nearly half a second off

– Shunts for Latifi and Schumacher disrupt session

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It had rained overnight, making for a wet race in the support series Formula 2, but by the time F1 cars headed out for FP3 the track had pretty much dried completely.

And the conditions proved good enough for Charles Leclerc to improve on his Thursday-topping effort on the very first run, albeit with a few laps on the soft tyre, as the early-starting Ferraris held an initial 1-2.

The Scuderia’s times remained competitive once Red Bull and Mercedes kicked off their programmes, with Leclerc usurped from first place yet Sainz jumping out ahead of Verstappen to lead at the half-hour mark.

Sainz then improved narrowly on a fresh set of softs, reinforcing first place right before a Nicholas Latifi shunt brought out the red flags.

Latifi, who looked to be comfortably outpacing Williams team-mate George Russell through the session, brushed the wall entering the second chicane in the Swimming Pool section and hopped the inside kerb before smashing his front wing and front right suspension against the barrier.

🚩 RED FLAG 🚩

Nicholas Latifi finds the wall near the swimming pool and the session is red-flagged whilst car recovery begins#MonacoGP 🇲🇨 #F1 pic.twitter.com/UB0QZfDELu

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 22, 2021

Latifi’s stricken FW43 was recovered swiftly, and Verstappen jumped ahead of Sainz by half a tenth shortly after the session resumed.

The Dutchman then lapped just 0.015s off his own best time mere moments before a huge shunt for Mick Schumacher effectively ended the session with a couple of minutes to spare.

Schumacher, who had an accident at Massenet on Thursday, smashed up his Haas VF-21 after exiting Casino Square sideways, the right side of his car demolished and making participation in qualifying unlikely.

The frozen order left Leclerc in third place, two tenths off Verstappen and Sainz but two tenths up on the leading Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

The Red Bull of Sergio Perez completed the top five, having begun the session on mediums – an outlier in a largely soft-shod field – and ending up half a second off Verstappen after switching to the softer rubber.

Lando Norris led McLaren’s charge in seventh, having just avoided running into the back of the direction-changing Ferrari of Sainz at Anthony Nogues during the session.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was only seventh, as the last driver within a second of Verstappen. Though Mercedes had a difficult session, Hamilton’s placement is somewhat misleading, given he ended up having to bail out of several push laps on his second-tyre run.

Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo), Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) and Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) completed the top 10.

It was a difficult session for Daniel Ricciardo, 13th and nearly a second off McLaren team-mate Norris, and Alpine, which ended up 15th with Fernando Alonso and last with Esteban Ocon.

Practice 3 Results