Ferrari asserted themselves as the team to beat going into qualifying as Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time in final practice on Saturday.
After his brush against the wall on Friday, the German suffered no lasting effect as he immediately moved ahead of Kimi Raikkonen on his first flying lap and then on his second, set a very impressive 1m36.054s using the Hypersoft tyre.
His Finnish teammate was almost four-tenths back in second with the two Mercedes’ on his tail as Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas both set their best times on a second timed lap but were over half a second off the pace of Vettel.
For all the predictions that Red Bull would challenge for victory this weekend, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were both over a second slower than the lead Ferrari in fifth and sixth respectively, Verstappen continuing to struggle with apparent engine software problems.
The midfield fight took an unexpected twist as Romain Grosjean led in seventh for Haas with the upgraded Force India’s of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez in eighth and ninth.
Fernando Alonso also continued his stronger weekend in P10 for McLaren, ahead of the highly fancied Renault’s with Nico Hulkenberg 11th and Carlos Sainz 13th.
Toro Rosso appeared to have made progress overnight, running well after the initial runs but eventually, both Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley would slip back down the order in 14th and 17th.
Sauber’s recent drop in competitiveness also continued though Charles Leclerc was a full second clear of teammate Marcus Ericsson albeit in 16th place.
Meaning the Swiss team is likely to be fighting Toro Rosso, Williams and Stoffel Vandoorne to make it out of Q1 when qualifying begins later.
Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
