Carlos Sainz was the protagonist of FP3 in Barcelona, setting the best time of the session a few thousandths ahead of ex-teammate Lando Norris, followed by Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and George Russell. Ferrari confirmed the quality of the car on low fuel, showing itself to be competitive in all three sectors after good work done during the night and during the session, and Leclerc also returned to being competitive after a less than perfect Friday and complimented the team at radio: “The work done was good”. Norris set his time first of all and on the second lap of his life of the tire after a small smudge in the first attempt, while Verstappen’s lap came together with that of the Ferraris; for the Qualifying (16 Italian) it promises to be a close battle but the Red team will have to confirm that it can extract everything from the tire when everyone is pushing hard. Mercedes also showed that they were there, a tenth and a half away from first place with Russell, while the difficulties continued for Sergio Perez – who was busy making changes to the set-up of his RB20 throughout the session.
FP3 Barcelona: Sainz in front but Norris and Verstappen are close and competitive
The morning began with a twist in the McLaren hospitality area: a fire due to an electrical short circuit caused the area to be evacuated, fortunately without serious consequences. Max Verstappen started the day with a change of setup in terms of rear load: a more highly loaded wing specification was fitted on the Dutchman’s RB20, after yesterday the decision was made not to waste useful time and race with a more unloaded wing. On the flying lap yesterday the car from Milton Keynes showed significant difficulties in the medium and slow speeds, while the performance in the long runs was very positive. From the first laps Mercedes confirmed itself in good shape on the single lap, while Ferrari corrected the difficulties in the final part of the track as the session continued.
Lando’s first rounds Norris confirmed a very fit McLaren, with the Englishman managing to match the times of Russell and the Ferraris despite the medium compound used; on the other side, throughout the session we saw Oscar Piastri in difficulty compared to his teammate. The Australian had suffered a three-tenths delay on the flying lap yesterday too, but in FP3 in Barcelona the deficit grew to 8 tenths and a dubious tenth position at the end of the last free practice session. The values in the midfield are always an unknown, Alpine’s performances have become ‘human’ again after yesterday’s exploit with Gasly, but Q1 and Q2 will be fought down to the last thousandth and even the top players cannot make mistakes: entering in Qualifying with five sets of soft, it will be crucial to spend only two sets in the first two phases to then be able to take advantage of the new tire in tomorrow’s match.
