Max Verstappen set a chilly Imola alight as he led Practice 3 by almost half a second at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Despite losing most of the second session on Friday to a driveshaft problem, the Dutchman was immediately on the pace in his Red Bull, posting a 1m14.958s on his final run.
That was enough to put Verstappen 0.456s clear of Lando Norris in second for McLaren. This as final practice was dominated by different approaches in term of fuel loads and engine modes and as drivers continued to get comfortable on the difficult Imola layout.
The session was also dogged by lap times being deleted due to track limits at Piratella (Turn 9), traffic and a brief red flag when Nicholas Latifi made gentle contact with the barrier at the Villeneuve chicane.
Nicholas Latifi finds trouble in FP3 ?#ImolaGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/D1dVwQCg1D
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 17, 2021
Lewis Hamilton sat third, with Sergio Perez fourth in the second Red Bull, as the Mexican continues to adapt to the RB16B.
Ferrari and AlphaTauri continued their battle with Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz covered by just 0.17s in fifth, sixth and seventh.
Friday pacesetter Valtteri Bottas was eighth down in eighth, as the upgraded Alpines continued to show promise with Fernando Alonso fractionally ahead of Esteban Ocon.
Yuki Tsunoda bemoaned traffic problems in 11th as the two Aston Martins sandwiched Daniel Ricciardo in 13th.
Q2 again looks a solid prospect at Williams with George Russell 15th and Latifi 17th after his off, while Mick Schumacher showed decent speed in 16th for Haas.
Alfa Romeo had a difficult morning as both Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen had trips through the gravel.
Meanwhile, Nikita Mazepin once again brought up the rear, six-tenths off the pace from the rest of the field.
Based on Practice 3 then, Verstappen and Red Bull are very much the combination to beat in qualifying.
But given the messy nature of the session, there’s still plenty of unknowns to be revealed.
Full results from final practice at Imola can be seen below:
