Sergio Perez pipped teammate Max Verstappen as Red Bull enjoyed a big advantage in Practice 3 at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Conditions remained cool and overcast at Spa Francorchamps but the rain showers that impacted both sessions on Friday stayed away.
That allowed teams to get plenty of proper dry running with many teams doing heavier fuel runs early on to gather tyre data.
Eventually, attention switched to single-lap pace before qualifying with Verstappen leading the way after the first runs.
Beforehand, the reigning world champion had a scare after seemingly ignoring yellow flags but the stewards quickly deemed no investigation was needed.
RED FLAG
Leclerc into the gravel trap ?
He bumps the barriers but looks like there’s no major damage done #BelgianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/LFc6HHvmNQ
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2022
The final flying laps came after a late red flag caused by a spin for Charles Leclerc at the Fagnes chicane, with the Monegasque lucky to avoid causing more damage to his Ferrari against the tyre barrier.
Verstappen improved on his earlier best by a quarter of a second, but Perez would make a big jump to post a 1m45.047s and lead the Dutchman by a tenth of a second.
Behind the Red Bulls was a seven-tenths gap to Carlos Sainz in third, with the Spaniard set to be Perez’s main competition for pole due to the grid penalties for Max and Leclerc.
Lando Norris is another driver starting towards the back due to penalties, but had good pace in fourth for McLaren. Fernando Alonso jumped up to fifth after his final lap, fractionally ahead of George Russell in the lead Mercedes.
This place. ? pic.twitter.com/UoNqGhXvvg
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 27, 2022
Just like Friday, the Brackley-based team struggled to balance tyre warm-up and degradation with the soft tyres losing their best grip before reaching optimum temperature.
Leclerc remained seventh despite his off, in front of Sebastian Vettel, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly who completed the top 10.
Daniel Ricciardo was 11th and Lewis Hamilton 12th after a mistake on his best lap but him seven-tenths behind teammate Russell.
Both Williams’ ran well before slipping back to 13th and 14th, though Nicholas Latifi did manage the fastest first sector of anyone in the session.
Nicky goes purple ?
The FW44 in Sector 1: ???#WeAreWilliams #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/idNfjO006v
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) August 27, 2022
Lance Stroll was also high up on the leaderboard before dropping down to 16th in the Aston Martin.
The two Haas’ lack of straight-line speed continues to hold them back, while a sensor issue limited Mick Schumacher to just six laps and slowest overall.
Zhou Guanyu was one place ahead in 19th and became the seventh driver confirmed with a grid penalty for Sunday.
Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
FP3 CLASSIFICATION
The RB18 likes this Spa circuit ?#BelgianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/ygaj44YA09
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2022