Max Verstappen was the fastest in FP3, with Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez chasing him. Guanyu Zhou crashed with 17 minutes to go, causing a red flag.
The FP3 session was anticipated by the breaking news that Carlos Sainz would be replaced by Formula 2 driver Oliver Bearman, as the Spaniard was diagnosed with appendicitis.
The British driver immediately started to get a few laps under his belt to gain confidence ahead of qualifying and the race.
Ferrari told Bearman to take his time in the car to find the right confidence, but the Britton immediately started to push a little bit more lap after lap. After 15 minutes, he was leading the FP3 with medium tires, ahead of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Then, Sergio Perez, Russell, Charles Leclerc, and Hamilton went faster than Bearman, only the Monégasque had the same (medium) tire, while the others used softs.
Perez was the fastest, and Max Verstappen was around two-tenths slower than him after his first two laps. Leclerc then tried another lap on mediums and went fastest by +0.326. Then, the Dutchman improved with soft tires and gained the lead by +0.313 seconds.
Logan Sargeant was forced to pit as he broke his front left suspension in the fast left-hander of the last sector. Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen set a great lap that put him in fourth, behind Fernando Alonso.
Then, Lance Stroll impeded Pierre Gasly in the first sector, and the FIA said the incident would be investigated after the session.
With 17 minutes to go, Guanyu Zhou crashed into the wall and caused a red flag. He hit the barrier in the first sector, severely damaging the car.
The session resumed with only 6 minutes remaining. Everybody had just one lap to push and try to improve.
In the last lap, Perez improved and went third fastest. Verstappen remained first, with Leclerc right behind. Russell was fourth, Norris fifth, Alonso and Stroll sixth and seventh, Piastri eighth, Hamilton ninth, and Bearman completed the top 10.