With a lap time of 1m23.433s, Oscar Piastri was the fastest in the third and final free practice session of this season’s last weekend. His teammate Lando Norris followed closely in 1m23.626s, while Lewis Hamilton was about two-tenths behind.

In FP2, the order was Lando Norris first, followed by Oscar Piastri, but this morning they swapped their positions. One thing is clear though: McLaren is fast and has everything in its hands to win the title against Ferrari. 

Hamilton's last attempt was enough to beat Verstappen’s lap time – who had been in third place until that moment – and put himself behind Piastri. Therefore, the Dutchman posted the fourth-fastest time, while Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10.

As for Ferrari, it was a tricky and uncertain session. Carlos Sainz finished 5th, while Charles Leclerc declared on the radio that Ferrari is "nowhere" in the battle with McLaren, pointing out that he couldn’t match his rivals’ pace in several corners of the track. The main issue with the SF-24 seems to be getting the tires up to temperature. The Monegasque driver, who will face a 10-place grid penalty on Sunday’s starting grid, ended up 9th, 0.665s off the best time.

George Russell finished 6th, while Haas drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen showed great form, finishing 7th and 8th, respectively.

Free Practice 3 results

1) Oscar Piastri - 1:23.433
2) Lando Norris +0.193
3) Lewis Hamilton +0.390
4) Max Verstappen +0.411
5) Carlos Sainz +0.438
6) George Russell +0.642
7) Nico Hulkenberg +0.660
8) Kevin Magnussen +0.661
9) Charles Leclerc +0.665
10) Sergio Perez +0.850
11) Yuki Tsunoda+0.910
12) Alexander Albon +0.945
13) Pierre Gasly +0.975
14) Jack Doohan +1.001
15) Fernando Alonso +1.020
16) Valtteri Bottas +1.046
17) Liam Lawson +1.086
18) Lance Stroll +1.098
19) Zhou Guanyu +1.235
20) Franco Colapinto +1.333