FP3 Report | Max Verstappen completes hattrick of practice sessions

Max Verstappen top his third session from three in Saudi Arabia, as he finishes top of the final practice session. The Dutchman finishes six tenths clear of his teammate Sergio Perez in second, while he's a second clear of his closest rival as Fernando Alonso rounds out the top three as Aston Martin finished with a 3-4

Dominace from Verstappen

It was Verstappen's session to lose from the get-go. Despite going out of the hard tyres in comparison to his opposition on soft runs. Verstappen managed to hold the first position for a period of time before Perez took over the hot seat although was still within the tyre delta of the C2 compared to the C4. By the time Verstappen got around to completing his soft run he was in a tier of his own, as he dominated the time sheets. Which allowed him to finish over half a second ahead of anyone else.

Rookies' struggles continue

With it being announced that Nyck de Vries won't participate in FP3 due to the need for his PU to be replaced, it was a poor start for the rookie class. Both Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri would start slowly, and be off the pace of their teammates, as although Alex Albon and Lando Norris would sit in the top 10, they were towards the bottom of the timesheets. Although both of the rookies would recover well on their final soft runs, as Piastri finished within 0.008 of Norris, and Sargeant was within a tenth of Albon.

Ferrari keep engines turned down

With limited running throughout the session, Ferrari left it to the last five minutes to complete their fast runs. Even then after the first one, they sat in 10th and 11th respectively, clearly down on speed in the traps hinting that they still don't trust the reliability of their cars. They would improve on their second run, as Charles Leclerc would finish sixth, and Carlos Sainz 10th, but the reliability alarm bells would still be ringing at the Italian outfit.