Charles Leclerc pipped Max Verstappen to lead the way in a very tight final practice at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
On his final flying lap, the Ferrari driver, who also led both sessions on Friday, would post a 1m29.735s to complete a practice sweep, leading the two Red Bulls by less than a tenth of a second.
Porpoising issues appeared to be hampering Carlos Sainz as the Spaniard finished two-tenths back in third, ahead of Valtteri Bottas in fifth for Alfa Romeo.
Both Alpines and both AlphaTauris also made the top 10 with Kevin Magnussen overcoming Haas’ hydraulics problems on Friday to sit P8.
The field was also very competitive with just 0.680s covering Leclerc in P1 to Yuki Tsunoda in P10.
Out in the Jeddah sun. ☀️?️ pic.twitter.com/3ER1cAo9nW
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) March 26, 2022
Outside that margin though was the two Mercedes’ as their lack of straight-line speed left Lewis Hamilton 11th and George Russell 14th.
The seven-time world champion would be only just within a second of the leading pace, while his new teammate was almost three-tenths further back.
In fact, the bottom seven cars were all Mercedes-powered as, behind Russell, Aston Martin, McLaren and Williams brought up the field.
Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
Fastest in FP1, FP2 and now FP3 @Charles_Leclerc is looking good ahead of qualifying #SaudiArabianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/4swsBua1t5
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 26, 2022