Results FP3: Red Bull Racing and Mercedes in balance; Alpine is doing well.

During the third free practice session Max Verstappen ended the session as the fastest. He had a margin of two to three tenths on the Mercedes-duo. The fact that Sergio Perez was also close to the top 3 promises a lot of excitement for this afternoon's qualifying session.

Perez was just a fraction slower than Valtteri Bottas, while Verstappen seemed to have the slight upper hand over Lewis Hamilton over one quick lap. The Dutchman from Red Bull Racing was able to improve his time several times in the closing stages of the session, while Hamilton fell just short on a couple of occasions and seemed to have reached his limit.

Behind the top two teams, the battle for the win was perhaps even more interesting. Ferrari and McLaren looked like they were going to be the ones to battle it out for the sub top, but now suddenly Alpine is getting involved too. They were fast on Friday and they were fast again on Saturday morning. Ocon finished fourth and if Alonso's fastest time hadn't been taken away he would have joined the top five as well.

A little further back, Alfa Romeo also did surprisingly well, with a top ten for Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi just two places behind. Big disappointment of the weekend seems to be Aston Martin again. They really need to find some speed before qualifying.