Sebastian Vettel fought back from a tricky Friday in Baku to top the timesheets on Saturday morning at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver set a 1.43.091 to beat the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport of Lewis Hamilton by three tenths of a second.
Kimi Räikkönen was third fastest as he was slower than his teammate for the first time this weekend, while Max Verstappen was fourth despite being compromised by a red flag in the closing minutes of the session. Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top five as they were all within half a second of each other.
Sergio Pérez continued his fine form in Baku with sixth for the Sahara Force India F1 Team, ahead of Kevin Magnussen in the Haas F1 Team.
It was an improved showing by Williams Martini Racing with Lance Stroll eighth and Sergey Sirotkin tenth with Esteban Ocon sandwiched between them.
The one bad news for the Grove outfit was Sirotkin’s mistake as he hit the wall on the outside of turn three that brought out the red flags. The Russian driver went in too hot into the ninety degree left hander and was committed to the corner but it all resulted in him hitting the wall, ripping off the front right tyre and giving his Williams team a repair job to do before qualifying.
The session restarted with three minutes left resulting in many drivers still trying to set a practice qualifying lap meaning it is not fully clear where everyone is ahead of qualifying in Baku.
Daniel Ricciardo had set the opening time of third practice as he aimed to continue on from Friday but the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver was unable to set a fully competitive time due to the red flag from Sirotkins crash and as a result finished twelfth.
Many drivers were still struggling at the Baku City Circuit and the yellow flags appeared a number of times as drivers tried to find the limits. Bottas ran wide at turn one while Brendon Hartley and Stroll also took to the escape road during the session.
Ferrari had struggled on Friday but everything looked fine today as Vettel and Räikkönen quickly went to the top of the timesheets.
Baku Free Practice 3 Result
[table id=2936 /]
