F1 Saudi Arabian GP: Verstappen tops final practice as Zhou suffers heavy crash

Charles Leclerc finished second for Ferrari, with Sergio Perez third in the other RB20 and Carlos Sainz’s illness-replacement, Oliver Bearman, taking 10th in the second of the Scuderia’s machines.

Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas ventured out on track first, with plenty of attention already on Bearman – a crowd of cameras and photographers clustered in front of what is now his garage.

Bottas posted the initial benchmark at 1m31.307s, with Bearman soon out behind him and also running the medium tyres.

He initially lapped nearly two seconds off Bottas’s pace, with Hamilton then beating the pair with a 1m30.793s on the soft tyres approaching the 10-minute mark.

Just past this, with Bearman’s second flier bringing him closer to the pace, Bottas re-took first place with a 1m30.770s, before Bearman pipped that with a 1m30.277s.

Hamilton, however, had also carried on for a second flier on his softs and he took this back to the top spot with a 1m30.253s as the opening quarter concluded, with most of pack still in the pits.

This did not include George Russell in the other Mercedes, as he was already out – also on the softs – but running a lower-downforce rear wing package compared to Hamilton.

Oliver Bearman, Scuderia Ferrari, has a seat fit (Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images)

Russell initially ran adrift of his team-mate and Bearman before he took the top spot with his second flier, which came in at 1m29.862s just before the 20-minute mark, after which Leclerc slotted the other Ferrari into second just 0.146s adrift on the medium tyres.

After this, the Red Bulls finally arrived in the fray, with Perez moving straight to the top of the times with a 1m29.562s on the soft tyres, with Verstappen’s first flier putting him second by 0.211s also on the red-walled rubber.

Approaching the end of FP3’s first half, Leclerc’s continued run on mediums took him to top spot as his second flying effort came in at 1m29.206s, then as the clock ticked over the 30-minute mark, Verstappen’s second push lap on the softs meant he forged ahead with a 1m28.893s and a new 0.313s gap at the head of the times.

After two more cooldown laps on his first set of softs, Verstappen went for a third time with 25 minutes remaining and bettered his own benchmark with a 1m28.412s and an increased gap to Leclerc at the head of the rest at this stage of 0.794s.

Shortly after this – when Verstappen had joined many other cars in the pits but with the Dutchman complaining he had hit “something” possibly a “plastic bottle” with his right front at Turn 1 – Alonso popped his Aston Martin into third behind Leclerc and ahead of Kevin Magnussen.

The lull in action then got extended when Zhou crashed hard at Turn 8 – having lost the rear of his Sauber in Turn 7 and spun off backwards, the rear and left-hand side of the car badly damaged in the impact Zhou was able to walk away from.

Zhou’s car was craned away within five minutes of his shunt, with 17 minutes of FP3 remaining, but the session only got going again with five minutes left.

The pack headed out en masse but as they crawled out of the pits on the softs, each of the 18 runners only got one flying lap.

Marshals remove the damaged car of Zhou Guanyu, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C44, from the circuit after a crash in FP3 (Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images)

Russell used his final flier to shoot up to second before he was deposed, first by Leclerc and then by Perez in ending up adrift of Verstappen’s leading time from much earlier.

As Lando Norris, Alonso, Lance Stroll, Oscar Piastri and Hamilton slotted into run behind Russell from fifth downwards, Verstappen completed his final flying lap last of the frontrunners.

For much of the lap he looked like he would improve the first-place benchmark, before Verstappen ended up losing time in the last sector and not bettering his personal best by 0.010s, which cemented his gap to Leclerc at 0.196s and 0.494s over Perez.

Bearman only got his softs run in that last-minute action – which was the case for Leclerc, Alonso and several others too – and he ended up 10th in the final FP3 order.

The late action only featured 18 runners because Logan Sargeant had damaged his FW44’s left-front trackrod when hitting the wall inside Turn 22 during the early running and he only completed two laps as a results, with no time set for the American.

F1 Saudi Arabian GP - FP3 report

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	13	1'28.412		251.395
2	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari	16	+0.196 1'28.608	0.196	250.839
3	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11		Red Bull	Red Bull	13	+0.494 1'28.906	0.298	249.998
4	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	17	+0.552 1'28.964	0.058	249.835
5	L. Norris McLaren	4		McLaren	Mercedes	11	+0.559 1'28.971	0.007	249.816
6	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		Aston Martin	Mercedes	14	+0.626 1'29.038	0.067	249.628
7	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		Aston Martin	Mercedes	14	+0.715 1'29.127	0.089	249.378
8	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	11	+0.801 1'29.213	0.086	249.138
9	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44		Mercedes	Mercedes	19	+0.856 1'29.268	0.055	248.985
10	O. Bearman Ferrari	38		Ferrari	Ferrari	22	+0.894 1'29.306	0.038	248.879
11	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20		Haas	Ferrari	12	+1.073 1'29.485	0.179	248.381
12	P. Gasly Alpine	10		Alpine	Renault	13	+1.134 1'29.546	0.061	248.212
13	Y. Tsunoda RB	22		RB	Red Bull	18	+1.160 1'29.572	0.026	248.140
14	E. Ocon Alpine	31		Alpine	Renault	13	+1.163 1'29.575	0.003	248.131
15	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		Haas	Ferrari	11	+1.263 1'29.675	0.100	247.855
16	D. Ricciardo RB	3		RB	Red Bull	15	+1.328 1'29.740	0.065	247.675
17	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	13	+1.396 1'29.808	0.068	247.487
18	V. Bottas Sauber	77		Sauber	Ferrari	21	+1.671 1'30.083	0.275	246.732
19	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24		Sauber	Ferrari	12	+2.327 1'30.739	0.656	244.948
20	L. Sargeant Williams	2		Williams	Mercedes	2
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