Sebastian Vettel showed no signs of the relative weakness that impacted his running yesterday. The Ferrari driver putting himself at the top of the timesheet in Saturday's final practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Vettel edged out Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton by 0.361s and Scuderia team mate Kimi Raikkonen by 0.402s. Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas rounded off the top five in a session that was red-flagged in the closing stages.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Free Practice 3
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:43.091s | 17 | |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:43.452s | + 0.361s | 16 |
| 3 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:43.493s | + 0.402s | 17 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:43.519s | + 0.428s | 17 |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:43.569s | + 0.478s | 20 |
| 6 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1:43.936s | + 0.845s | 9 |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:43.958s | + 0.867s | 11 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1:44.123s | + 1.032s | 8 |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1:44.220s | + 1.129s | 11 |
| 10 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1:44.534s | + 1.443s | 9 |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:44.763s | + 1.672s | 12 |
| 12 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:44.861s | + 1.770s | 17 |
| 13 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1:44.905s | + 1.814s | 16 |
| 14 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 1:45.218s | + 2.127s | 15 |
| 15 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:45.261s | + 2.170s | 12 |
| 16 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1:45.432s | + 2.341s | 15 |
| 17 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:45.456s | + 2.365s | 11 |
| 18 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:45.505s | + 2.414s | 13 |
| 19 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:45.910s | + 2.819s | 17 |
| 20 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1:46.186s | + 3.095s | 11 |
Teams headed out for their final rehearsal before qualifying under a menacing sky and a few rain drops, but the session eventually remained dry to the end.
Looking to make up for his deficit on Friday, Vettel lost no time getting up to speed this time along with his team mate, both men running on Pirelli's ultrasoft rubber.
Hamilton inserted himself between the two red cars, but the Mercedes, while appearing to enjoy better pace still suffered a deficit to its Maranello rivals in Baku's middle sector.
Verstappen just pipped Bottas for fifth, while the Dutchman's Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo concluded his morning down in P12 after traffic forced the Aussie to abort a late fast run.
Force India's Sergio Perez ran once again in the top ten, putting himself sixth just in front of Haas' Kevin Magnussen.
Lance Stroll's spot in eighth place demonstrated the improving form of Williams FW41. However team mate Sergey Sirotkin suffered a hard impact with the outside wall at Turn 3 in the closing stages of the session, an incident that brought out the red flag with just under ten minutes remaining on the board.
The Russian's previous time remained good enough however for P10, just behind ninth-place man Esteban Ocon.
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