Max Verstappen was in control as he comfortably led final practice at the Miami Grand Prix.
The reigning champion posted a best time of 1m27.535s to finish four-tenths clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as teams completed final preparations before qualifying.
After his crash at the end of practice on Friday, Leclerc left it late to be the only other driver below 1m28s in second, fractionally faster than Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull.
Carlos Sainz was fourth after almost repeating his teammate’s off at Turn 7 but managed to recover safely.
Lapping around the 305 ???#Alpine #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/nnsHIwCrlO
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) May 6, 2023
Esteban Ocon pipped teammate Pierre Gasly as Alpine was the third-best team in fifth and sixth, just ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg as all four drivers lapped in the 1m28.4s bracket.
Alex Albon claimed ninth for Williams with George Russell the lead Mercedes down in 10th as he and teammate Lewis Hamilton, who finished 13th, struggled for pace.
Kevin Magnussen was 11th, followed by Fernando Alonso in a lowly 12th, two places ahead of Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll in 14th.
Zhou Guanyu took 15th, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant. McLaren languished with 18th and 19th with Nyck De Vries slowest in the AlphaTauri.
The top 10 from Practice 3 can be seen below:
#MaxVerstappen looking imperious ahead of qualifying at the #MiamiGP! #F1 #Formula1 pic.twitter.com/9WKpuEKpu4
— InsideRacing.com (@INSIDERACINGcom) May 6, 2023