Saturday in Montreal opened with a third free practice session that looked like a first. In fact, yesterday, due to the uncertain weather, with an alternation of rain and clear spells, the teams were able to run very little and gathered little information with a view to the weekend. Taking the cover photo of FP3 in Canada is a Lewis Hamilton on fire, who closed the session at the top of the timesheets, edging out almost four-tenths of a second from Max Verstappen. George Russell’s third fastest time confirms Mercedes’ competitiveness. A complicated session, however, for Ferrari, which concluded with Leclerc’s tenth fastest time and Sainz’s twelfth.
MERCEDES IN GREAT FORM IN FP3 IN CANADA
The third free practice session of the Canadian GP opened immediately with a red flag caused by Guanyu Zhou, who lost the car exiting Turn 1, resulting in contact with the barriers with the rear. Not the best start to the weekend for the Chinese driver, who had lost control of the car in the wet in FP1.
Starting the day in great form is Mercedes, which, especially in the qualifying simulation, showed excellent speed, especially with Lewis Hamilton, who showed a super pace from the first kilometres on the soft tyre.
The seven-time world champion closed FP3 with a time of 1’12”549, beating Max Verstappen by four tenths. George Russell‘s session was also positive, confirming his good competitiveness, finishing third fastest, just a few thousandths behind Verstappen. The three-pointed star seems to have started the weekend in the right direction already. At the end of yesterday, they had underlined a good feeling experienced in the time spent on the track.
It should be noted that Mercedes has fitted the new specification front wing on both cars, after the old one was used yesterday due to adverse weather. Great fourth time set by Aston Martin with Lance Stroll, followed by Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. Lando Norris was seventh, preceded by Daniel Ricciardo, who set an excellent lap in the qualifying simulation. Eighth time for Fernando Alonso, followed by Sergio Perez’s Red Bull.
The teams’ work in the first part of the session focused on simulating the race pace, with most of the drivers on medium tyres, including Max Verstappen, author of a complicated Friday. The ERS problems that had affected his car in FP2 led Red Bull to opt for a step back in terms of Power Unit.
The Dutchman, who had started the weekend with a fresh engine, the third unit, will dispute the remainder of the weekend with the PU with which he raced in Monaco as a precaution. Not the best simulation of race pace for Verstappen, who expressed a less than brilliant pace, although it must be highlighted that the almost completely ‘green’ track complicated the work.
A DIFFICULT SESSION FOR FERRARI
At Ferrari, the work on the race pace with medium tyres highlighted the graining on the front left of Carlos Sainz, who ran with a high fuel load. The same phenomenon was also highlighted in Charles Leclerc’s simulation – not new in Canada – who suffered some problems with the symmetry of the car when braking, which the mechanics worked on during the session. Not an easy session for Ferrari and, to testify to this, a radio team in which Leclerc said he was far from satisfied with the speed of the SF-24: “We are extremely slow.” The Monegasque finished tenth fastest, with Sainz twelfth.
Despite Cavallino’s difficulties, it remains difficult to establish what the real level of values on the field is, also in light of the factors that could direct the qualification, such as the evolution of the track or the uncertainty of the weather. It remains to be seen whether Mercedes will be able to exalt itself again, even in the most important moment of the day.
