A mega Piastri shows Norris who's boss, Hamilton revives as Verstappen suffers

Oscar Piastri led FP3 ahead of Lando Norris, as Charles Leclerc took P3 ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with Max Verstappen still unable to make the top 10.

How it happened

On track action was late to start with drivers parked in their garage for the first 20 minutes of the session. However, when it did get started, drivers started setting fast laps on soft tyres.

Oscar Piastri took the top spot, marginally ahead of George Russell, with Charles Leclerc right behind as well. However, their efforts were then bested by Max Verstappen, even if marginally so, by 0.034s.

Lando Norris placed P5 with Lewis Hamilton on P6. Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, Yuki Tsunoda and Andrea Kimi Antonelli rounded off the top 10.

Leclerc then set the timing sheets a-blaze with two purple sectors, but lost out on the exit of Turn 12 biting the gravel. However, it was enough to demote Verstappen to P2 by 0.065s.

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Piastri sets the pace ahead of Norris, Hamilton and Verstappen out of the fight

However, Piastri brought down the times below the 1:16's wtih a 1:15.871, nearly three tenths quicker. Hamilton set a strong enough lap to beat his temmate, but not enough to dethrone the Australian McLaren driver who still had a cushion worth 0.144s.

Whereas yesterday Norris had the pan firmly gripped by the handle, on Saturday he looked to be on the backfoot behind Piastri once again, 0.244s behind his McLaren teammate.

Piastri then went below the 1:15's with a 1:14.916. Norris closed up to him at 0.032s, with Hamilton completing a lap good enough for P3 but nearly 8 tenths behind. Verstappen could only bring his RB21 up to P6, 1.2 seconds adrift.

Leclerc put in a great qualifying lap, but was still unable to take the fight to the McLarens, 0.399s off their blistering pace, slotting in ahead of his Ferrari teammate Hamilton.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli placed P5, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in P6 and P7, ahead of Russell, Bortoleto and Hulkenberg with Verstappen down in P12.