Russell conquers Friday’s issues by topping a tight FP3
- Jason Sharp
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Written by Jason Sharp
FP3 at the Red Bull Ring was topped by George Russell with a 1:07.096. The Briton who won here in 2024 edged out his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli by 0.038 seconds.
Russell has turned things around since Friday after struggling with understeer throughout, and championship rival Lewis Hamilton was P3 for Ferrari, just 0.115 seconds off the top time.
Ferrari have brought a highly anticipated new engine for this weekend which was displayed for the first time in this session.
The two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were P4 and P5 respectively, followed by a much more driveable Red Bull compared to Friday in the hands of Max Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc was P7 in the other Ferrari in what is an important Saturday for the Monegasque as recent form has seen him have accidents in the last two qualifying sessions.
The second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar was P8 and the sister Racing Bulls team rounded out the top ten, with Liam Lawson in P9 and Arvid Lindblad in P10.
It was a slow start to what was a smooth session for most with minimal reliability issues and off-track excursions. The heat remained a huge talking point as the temperatures again exceeded 30°C. Driver cooling systems were prominent throughout the pitlane, with tyre management and cooling remaining key discussion points.
Fernando Alonso’s FP3 was compromised by a technical issue on his Aston Martin. The two-time World Champion suffered with high amounts of understeer before it was deemed a technical issue. The Silverstone based team without upgrades to this weekend finished as the bottom two.
Looking ahead
Less than three tenths covered the leading six drivers, making for one of the closest qualifying sessions of the year at the circuit that has the shortest lap times of the season.
Mercedes continue to be the bench mark but Ferrari’s engine has closed the gap. Red Bull look more comfortable, albeit still on the back foot, and McLaren look to have solid pace. Such small margins could turn it anyone's way, ramping up the heat even more come Qualifying.
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