Verstappen dominance continues unabated in FP3

©WRI

A flawless Max Verstappen continued his free practice dominance in Saturday's morning session, edging out Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel by 0.049s and Kimi Raikkonen by 0.051s.

The trio led Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, running for the first time this weekend on Pirelli's hypersoft tyre, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas, with all fastest times set on the pink-rimmed rubber.

Canadian Grand Prix - Free Practice 3 times

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:11.599s		14
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:11.648s	+ 0.049s	22
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:11.650s	+ 0.051s	21
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:11.706s	+ 0.107s	23
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:12.153s	+ 0.554s	29
6	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:12.255s	+ 0.656s	27
7	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:12.903s	+ 1.304s	16
8	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:12.946s	+ 1.347s	21
9	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:13.014s	+ 1.415s	16
10	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:13.034s	+ 1.435s	21
11	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:13.064s	+ 1.465s	18
12	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:13.076s	+ 1.477s	24
13	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:13.225s	+ 1.626s	19
14	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:13.331s	+ 1.732s	22
15	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:13.334s	+ 1.735s	19
16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:13.452s	+ 1.853s	19
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:13.488s	+ 1.889s	21
18	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:13.818s	+ 2.219s	18
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:13.925s	+ 2.326s	20
20	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:13.968s	+ 2.369s	17

Friday's practice was all about Red Bull and Max Verstappen, but its Mercedes and Ferrari rivals were eager to test changes implemented for the final dress rehearsal before this afternoon's all-important qualifying session.

The Scuderia's Kimi Raikkonen was the first man to put a relevant time on the board, his hypersoft-shod SF71-H clocking in with a 1m12.931s, while Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo first effort left the Aussie 0.237s off the Ferrari's pace.

Stoffel Vandoorne triggered a yellow flag in the first 15 minutes of running after he locked up and overshot the Turn 3-4 chicane. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel demoted his team mate at the top of the timesheet, beating the Finn by 0.124s.

Mercedes were up and running three quarters through the session, initially cruising on the ultrasoft tyre until Hamilton upped the ante to put himself P3, 0.363s off Vettel's fastest lap.

Hamilton frustrated by Mercedes' limited supply of hypersoft tyres

The Silver Arrows squad was clearly trying to assess whether they can get through Q2 this afternoon without resorting the hypersoft, and the first indications appeared that they could.

A few worries crept in at Red Bull, with Ricciardo receiving persistent 'fail' codes linked to his engine software, but the Aussie kept up the pace unabated, lining up fifth on the ultrasofts just behind his team mate.

Ferrari continued to make good use of the hypersoft, with Raikkonen overtaking Vettel at the top of the timesheet with a lap in 1m.763s, but for the first time this weekend Mercedes took Pirelli's softest tyre for a spin, with Bottas' first relevant time on the compound good for P5.

Vettel reversed the order at the front however, edging out Raikkonen by a mere 0.002s. Hamilton appeared to be on a serious charge as he put the hypersoft through its paces for the first time, but backed off before the end of his lap.

His second flying lap was better, and put the Mercedes driver within 0.058s of Vettel. But shortly later, Verstappen jumped to the front once again, pipping the Ferrari driver by 0.049s to lead FP3!

Behind the Red Bull-Ferrari-Mercedes usual suspects - all covered by just 0.656s - it was Sergio Perez in seventh place for Force India followed by Renault's Nico Hulkenberg, Haas' Romain Grosjean and McLaren's Vandoorne.

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Michael Delaney