George Russell was the fastest man in Baku by just 0.013s. Charles Leclerc was second and Lando Norris was third. Oliver Bearman crashed into turn 1 causing a red flag.
The action was slow to start in FP3, as only a few drivers went out on track but didn’t set significant lap times.
Right when the real action was starting on track with drivers setting lap times on soft tires, the red flag was deployed, as Esteban Ocon had an issue with his Alpine and stopped in the middle of the circuit.
With 37 minutes to go, the session resumed. The first times weren’t as competitive as those of yesterday, considering that after the top teams, Williams’ drivers set the first and second-fastest times, with Alexander Albon ahead of Franco Colapinto by 0.815s.
As Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and other top team drivers were greatly improving their lap times, Oliver Bearman crashed into turn 1 and the second red flag was deployed. Luckily, the marshals were quick to remove the Haas and the session restarted immediately after.
Finally, the qualifying simulation was completed and the fastest driver was Oscar Piastri, with the time of 1:42.749. Sergio Perez was second, 0.640s behind, with Leclerc third, 0.706s behind.
Max Verstappen was fourth, just ahead of Albon, who set a great time and was up to P5. Lando Norris was improving, but he dived into the pits and didn’t conclude his lap. Mercedes also seemed to struggle, as George Russell was only eighth and Hamilton only tenth.
In his second attempt, Leclerc went first-fastest, 0.165s ahead of Piastri. Russell also improved and went up to P3, 0.439s behind the Ferrari. Verstappen then snatched P3 from Russell, as he was 0.300s slower than Leclerc. Norris finally finished one lap and went second-fastest, with a gap of 0.173s.
Russell further improved his lap time, going first-fastest, just 0.050s ahead of Leclerc. The latter got even closer to the Britton, as the gap reduced to just 0.013s. Carlos Sainz was only sixth, 0.545s behind the leader.
Albon and Colapinto both did a great job as they were P8 and P9 ahead of Hamilton.