Fernando Alonso mastered the conditions best to go quickest in a wet final practice at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Persistent rain has been falling throughout the day in Montreal and continued into the final hour of running before qualifying later on Saturday.
As a result, drivers began on the full wet tyres due to the level of standing water around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Over the 60 minutes, the track gradually improved with the best times coming late on as most switched to the intermediate compound.
That’s enough practice.
P1 ? Fernando
P4 ? Esteban #CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/iDolT5KoSJ— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) June 18, 2022
Alonso was the first to do so and would get faster and faster, ending the session with the best time of 1m33.836s.
Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel finished just half a tenth behind in second and third respectively, with the four-time world champion looking very comfortable in the wet in his Aston Martin.
Esteban Ocon backed up Alpine’s pace in fourth, ahead of the two McLarens led by Daniel Ricciardo.
George Russell would be the fastest full wet tyre runner in seventh. Sergio Perez claimed eighth followed by Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen, who struggled somewhat with various offs and a spin at Turn 2.
Now Verstappen is off at Turn 2!
Max manages to avoid the barriers and gets going again as the clock ticks down on FP3 #CanadianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/RIFsr72wDK
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 18, 2022
Carlos Sainz rounded out the top 10, while Charles Leclerc only did four laps and didn’t set a time as it was confirmed Ferrari had fitted another new power unit in his car, meaning a back of the grid start on race day.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were 11th and 12th in the Alfa Romeos in front of Lance Stroll in 13th.
Kevin Magnussen was another to go off in the opening two corners en route to 14th, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in 15th.
Alex Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi rounded out those who set a time in Practice 3.
With the rain set to ease, it appears qualifying could be a wet/dry session if the circuit dries in time.
If conditions do stay wet though, F1 could potentially see its first non-Ferrari or Red Bull driver on pole in 2022!
Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
FP3 CLASSIFICATION ?
You really don’t want to miss qualifying! #CanadianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/KoRzvvENjX
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 18, 2022