Lewis Hamilton goes into qualifying in the best way possible, as the six-time World Champion ended Free Practice 3 fastest ahead of Max Verstappen by the narrowest of margins.
Charles Leclerc drew first blood of the top drivers with a representative time of 1:09.871 on the soft compound tyres. That time after the first eighteen minutes was beaten by his Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel, as the German went two tenths quicker, with Valtteri Bottas moving into second and a tenth of a second off the pace.
Hamilton was next to take top spot with a 1:09.562, whilst Leclerc leapt up into second and 0.037s shy of the World Champion. Verstappen pulled off a couple of storming laps on his first set of the soft compound.
The Dutchman inherited first place on his first run on a 1:09.327 before going even quicker on 1:09.063. Verstappen would beat his time on his second set of tyres, albeit by only four thousandths of a second.
The top ten after the opening thirty minutes of Free Practice 3 was Verstappen in front of Hamilton, Bottas, Leclerc, Vettel, Alexander Albon, Nico Hülkenberg, Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat.
Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc had brief spells at the top once again but Lewis Hamilton displayed why Mercedes-AMG Motorsport are in the fight for pole position later on today, as he went three tenths faster than the two Ferraris. Max Verstappen ended the session in the second and only 0.026s behind the Brit heading into qualifying.
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