Verstappen tops FP3, clears Leclerc by half a second

There was no challenging Max Verstappen in Saturday's final practice in Miami where the Red Bull driver tightened his grip on proceedings.

Verstappen concluded the session 0.406s clear of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, while teammate Sergio Perez was 0.515s adrift, the Mexican preceding the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

Alpine returned to top form, with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly – perhaps running low fuel loads – clocking in P5 and P6.

Unfortunately, Mercedes' chances of making the Q3 cut in qualifying took another hit in FP3 with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton confirming the team's struggles from Friday afternoon.

• Miami Grand Prix Free Practice 3 - Results

A key talking point after Friday's opening day of running was the very low-grip of the resurfaced Miami track – especially off the racing line – which caught a lot of drivers out.

Grip should improve however as more rubber is laid down, but just by how much will is anyone's guess.

The session kicked off under overcast skies, but still under very warm conditions, with 29°C ambient temperatures, albeit with rising humidity.

The theme remained 'Catch Red Bull if you can', and Verstappen – shod with the soft tyre – lost no time putting a small buffer between himself and the field.

Halfway through the session, both Ferraris had settled into second and third, with Perez and Alonso following close behind.

Pressing on, Verstappen lowered his own benchmark to a 1m27.669s, a new fastest lap of the weekend. The Dutchman then shaved another tenth off his best flyer, which restored his half second advantage over his closest rival, which at that point was Sainz.

Meanwhile, Ocon popped up into P4, the Alpine charger noting that grip was slowly but surely improving all-round. And for good measure, Gasly followed suit, clicking in just 0.013s behind his teammate.

Over at Mercedes there were more complaints from Russell about vibrations running through his steering rack.

The session thus concluded with Verstappen top of board, the Red Bull charger leading the field in all three sectors of the track, edging Leclerc, Perez, Sainz, Ocon and Gasly among the top six.

Behind, Valtteri Bottas was a welcome returnee to the top ten for Alfa, the Finn followed by Hulkenberg, Albon and Russell.

Both Aston Martin drivers were uncharacteristically outside of the top ten, as was Hamilton down in P13.

But perhaps more worrying were the depressed performances of both McLaren drivers, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris only followed by the struggling Williams of Nyck de Vries.

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