Leclerc completes practice sweep as Ferrari lead by a second

Charles Leclerc was fastest again in the third practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, leading a Ferrari one-two ahead of qualifying.

Leclerc was almost two-tenths of a second faster than Sebastian Vettel, despite his team mate picking up the slipstream of Daniil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso at the end of his quickest lap at the end of qualifying. Vettel made a last effort to unseat his team mate from the top spot, improving his time in the first sector, butran wide later in the lap.

None of Ferrari’s rivals were able to get within a second of the flying SF90s. The charge was led not by the usual Mercedes, but by Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, though he was 1.248s off Leclerc’s pace.

Valtteri Bottas led the Mercedes pair, who unlike Ferrari began the session on the medium compound tyres. After switching to the softs they remained around one-and-a-half seconds off the red cars, and Lewis Hamilton went up an escape road twice trying to better his time.

Toro Rosso underlined the potential of Honda’s upgraded power unit with Daniil Kvyat ‘best of the rest’ in sixth, two places ahead of team mate Alexander Albon. The pair were separated by Kevin Magnussen.

Pierre Gasly in the fourth Honda-powered car ended the session at the bottom of the times. His pit lane start penalty meant he had no reason to work on his single-lap pace.

Renault looked in slightly better shape than on Friday, but Daniel Ricciardo was kept out of the top 10 by Sergio Perez’s Racing Point and Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo. But the midfield was as close as ever – Ricciardo missed tenth place by two hundredths of a second.

The McLaren pair confirmed their Friday fears by ending the session outside the top 10, both drivers lapping in 1’43.9. George Russell completed his first meaningful laps in his new Williams chassis, but both the team’s drivers were one-and-a-half seconds off the next-slowest cars.

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Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’41.604		14
2	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’41.802	0.198	14
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda	1’42.852	1.248	16
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1’43.064	1.460	19
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’43.176	1.572	17
6	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Honda	1’43.223	1.619	18
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’43.294	1.690	19
8	23	Alexander Albon	Toro Rosso-Honda	1’43.300	1.696	19
9	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point-Mercedes	1’43.430	1.826	15
10	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’43.537	1.933	19
11	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1’43.561	1.957	20
12	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’43.637	2.033	20
13	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault	1’43.924	2.320	20
14	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	McLaren-Renault	1’43.978	2.374	19
15	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point-Mercedes	1’44.039	2.435	16
16	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1’44.043	2.439	19
17	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1’44.374	2.770	16
18	88	Robert Kubica	Williams-Mercedes	1’46.000	4.396	19
19	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	1’46.290	4.686	20
20	10	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull-Honda	1’47.836	6.232	22

Third practice visual gaps

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Pos	Driver	Car	FP1	FP2	FP3	Fri/Sat diff	Total laps
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’47.497	1’42.872	1’41.604	-1.268	47
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’49.598	1’43.196	1’41.802	-1.394	46
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda		1’43.793	1’42.852	-0.941	41
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes		1’44.003	1’43.064	-0.939	50
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1’43.541	1’43.176	-0.365	48
6	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Honda		1’44.177	1’43.223	-0.954	28
7	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari		1’44.901	1’43.294	-1.607	45
8	Alexander Albon	Toro Rosso-Honda		1’44.216	1’43.300	-0.916	53
9	Sergio Perez	Racing Point-Mercedes		1’45.436	1’43.430	-2.006	44
10	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		1’45.482	1’43.537	-1.945	50
11	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault		1’45.483	1’43.561	-1.922	36
12	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		1’45.366	1’43.637	-1.729	52
13	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault		1’44.295	1’43.924	-0.371	53
14	Carlos Sainz Jnr	McLaren-Renault		1’44.183	1’43.978	-0.205	47
15	Lance Stroll	Racing Point-Mercedes		1’47.875	1’44.039	-3.836	25
16	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault		1’46.717	1’44.043	-2.674	44
17	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull-Honda		1’44.240	1’47.836	+3.596	47
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari		1’45.618	1’44.374	-1.244	48
19	Robert Kubica	Williams-Mercedes		1’48.111	1’46.000	-2.111	47
20	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes			1’46.290		23

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