Max Verstappen led the two Mercedes’ as the back and forth battle continued in final practice at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Tyre preparation continued to dominate at Portimao, with drivers switching between one and two warm-up laps on the soft compound before pushing flat out.
For the Red Bull driver though it was more about putting a lap together as his best time of 1m18.489s didn’t include any personal best sectors, suggesting there’s still a good amount of time on the table.
Verstappen’s time was still good enough to be almost a quarter of a second ahead of Lewis Hamilton in P2, with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez a further tenth behind in third and fourth.
The midfield battle is looking particularly close with Esteban Ocon fifth for Alpine but only after teammate Fernando Alonso, who was 14th, had a faster lap deleted for track limits.
Ferrari continues to look strong in sixth and seventh, while Lando Norris recovered from a spin to sit P8 for McLaren.
Pierre Gasly began to show AlphaTauri’s potential in ninth, with Kimi Raikkonen a strong 10th in the Alfa Romeo.
Proving how competitive the grid is, just a second covered the top 14 drivers, including Alonso.
Mick Schumacher was a solid 15th in the Haas, ahead of both Aston Martins with Lance Stroll 16th and Sebastian Vettel 18th.
George Russell will need a boost to make Q2 again for Williams after ending FP3 17th, as Nicholas Latifi and Nikita Mazepin once again bringing up the field.
Back at the front, and its 1-1 in pole positions between Hamilton and Verstappen in 2021. Will that deadlock be broken? Can Hamilton claim his 100th career pole? Or can another driver upset the odds?
An exciting qualifying awaits…
Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
