What happened in final Qatar GP F1 practice

Valtteri Bottas led a Mercedes 1-2 in the final practice session of Formula 1’s first Qatar Grand Prix weekend.

Key moments

> Verstappen three tenths off the Mercedes duo
> Spins for Leclerc and Schumacher
> Mazepin sidelined again

The session was red-flagged before it really had a chance to begin in earnest, with the second driver out of the pits, Nikita Mazepin, immediately instructed by his Haas team to pull over.

“The car did not sound right, the engine sounded different,” Mazepin – who had required a chassis change on Friday – confirmed, before his VF-20 was pushed back down pitlane.

And as Haas subsequently discovered that the engine control unit on Mazepin’s car needed fixing, the Russian was resigned to spending the rest of the session in the pits, having already missed the entirety of FP2 the day before.

Haas engineers to the rescue! 👏

Mazepin has been pushed back to the garage and FP3 is now under way 🟢#QatarGP 🇶🇦 #F1 pic.twitter.com/VZ9Axai7Um

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 20, 2021

The FP3 session resumed less than five minutes after the stoppage, and over the course of the opening runs Mercedes took over the top two spots, with Bottas under a tenth up on Lewis Hamilton, and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly just a tenth and a half down on the Finn before his time was deleted for a track limits infringement.

Max Verstappen, the only non-Mercedes driver to dip below the 1m23s mark legally during the first runs, had led the session briefly but was four tenths off by the time he ended his initial soft-tyre stint.

With Red Bull again having to extensively work to reinforce his rear wing, with a section flapping at the end of the main straight, Verstappen could only rejoin the session in the final five minutes.

By that time, Bottas and Hamilton had both improved marginally, and Verstappen’s only flyer only got him within three and a half tenths of the Finn.

A late attempt from Hamilton was not enough to overhaul Bottas, the pair remaining 0.078s apart at the chequered flag.

Gasly put together a strong late effort to make up for the earlier deletion and split the two Red Bulls, two tenths behind Verstappen and one hundredth up on Sergio Perez.

The Spanish duo of Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine) was next up, with Alonso having raised eyebrows earlier in FP3 by setting what was briefly the fastest time on mediums.

His team-mate Esteban Ocon was a quarter of a tenth down in eighth, followed by Charles Leclerc – who had a big spin exiting Turn 2 – and AlphaTauri’s rookie Yuki Tsunoda.

Leclerc goes spinning coming out of Turn 2

Tyres flat-spotted but seemingly no other damage done #QatarGP 🇶🇦 #F1 pic.twitter.com/afGlQFJYmp

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 20, 2021

Lance Stroll was the protagonist of a notable broadcast radio message during the session, yelling “man, the car is s**t” as he ended up 15th, three places behind Aston Martin team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

With Mazepin absent, Mick Schumacher was the only Haas to set a laptime as he finished slowest, albeit by just two tenths, having also had a spin in the first sector.

Practice 3 Results