Verstappen leads Hamilton in final free practice at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen finished on top of the time charts at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in the final free practice session. Lewis Hamilton finished in second position, 0.214 seconds behind Verstappen.

Sergio Pérez was in third position to complete a good practice session for the Red Bull Racing team.

The sixty-minute long final free practice session started at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit with air temperatures at 29 degrees C and track temperatures at 35 degrees C.

The conditions were very similar to the first free practice session. As with all night and twilight races, the first practice sessions of the day take place in conditions not representative of the qualification and race conditions.

In this street circuit, the qualification is very important as it will be hard to overtake even though there are three DRS zones.

Nikita Mazepin was the first driver on the track. The Russian was soon joined on the track by MicK Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen. The Finn went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m31.378s.

The two Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers went out on the hard compound tyres. Hamilton went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m 29.605s. Bottas slotted into second position behind him.

With forty-five minutes to go, Verstappen finally came out on the soft compound tyres. The Dutchman went third fastest and team-mate Sergio Pérez went to the top of the time charts.

But Hamilton and Bottas were soon back on top of the time charts with Pérez and Lando Norris behind them. Verstappen was in sixth position at this stage.

Hamilton with a lap time of 1m28.314s was almost a full second clear of the field. Pierre Gasly slotted into second position, 0.401 seconds behind Hamilton.

Verstappen put together a good lap to take second position, 0.335 seconds slower than Hamilton. Pérez was in fourth position and the Mexican was having a much better session today.

With thirty minutes to go, the artificial lights were taking effect as the sun was setting. Verstappen with a lap time of 1m28.212s went to the top of the time charts. The Dutchman improved further with a lap time of 1m28.100s.

Hamilton on his first run on the soft compound tyres could not get the tyres in the right temperature window and had to abort the lap. Then the Briton was involved in two incidents when he was going slowly on the track and the drivers had to take evasive action.

Verstappen ended the session on top of the time charts. Hamilton and Bottas struggled to set the fast lap times on the soft compound tyres.

Pérez, Tsunoda and Gasly finished behind Hamilton to complete the top 5 positions at the end of the session. The Honda-engine powered cars had the upper hand at the end of the session.

2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix FP3 Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1:28.100		20
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:28.314	+0.214s	23
3	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1:28.629	+0.529s	21
4	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:28.641	+0.541s	20
5	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:28.715	+0.615s	22
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:29.019	+0.919s	19
7	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:29.101	+1.001s	22
8	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:29.149	+1.049s	19
9	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1:29.177	+1.077s	19
10	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:29.300	+1.200s	18
11	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	1:29.418	+1.318s	21
12	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:29.590	+1.490s	20
13	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:29.689	+1.589s	24
14	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:29.717	+1.617s	19
15	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:30.030	+1.930s	14
16	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1:30.034	+1.934s	17
17	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:30.296	+2.196s	15
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:30.366	+2.266s	17
19	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:30.933	+2.833s	20
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	RAF	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:30.979	+2.879s	23