In the first 10 minutes of the hour-long session, which took place in cloudy and cooler conditions compared to the opening race on Friday, no cars appeared on the track.
The Haas couple Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher were ultimately the first riders to hit the road, soon followed by another group of riders, with all teams avoiding the mid-size tires that are likely to be crucial to Q2 and the opening stint of the race early phases and sent their cars to the softs from the start (except for Aston Martin, who initially gave Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll the hards).
As the first car to set a time, Mazepin duly set the P1 benchmark at 1: 34.966 minutes just before the end of the first quarter, which was the fastest time for a few minutes before Sergio Perez drove a couple of 1: 33.775 minutes later.
Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The alpine riders Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso then cycled to the top, with the latter being the fastest with 1: 33.206 minutes, almost 10 minutes – until the Mercedes drivers and Verstappen appeared for the first time.
Hamilton led the trio around and took the top spot with 1: 33.107 minutes, but behind him Bottas set the fastest time in all three sectors to get even faster with 1: 32.346 minutes.
Verstappen, who followed a few moments behind, took first place with a time of 1: 32.337 minutes, which he described as a “pretty shitty lap” that had a small lock in turn 12 on the tight left and then the fastest time in the third sector .
While Hamilton pitted, Bottas and Verstappen made a second attempt with their first set of softs, the later one returning to first place with 1: 32.309 minutes – despite the loss of time in the middle sector.
Verstappen then put in a 1: 32.024, with purple sectors in the final two-thirds of the lap, but this time it was canceled because he had run a little too far on exiting turn 6, which was now on from the start of FP3 Police are being monitored by the FIA for track restrictions, with each driver losing time bringing all four wheels out over the white line on the left side of the track while swinging back towards the fast left turn 7 and the start of the Mistral Straight.
Shortly before the 45-minute mark, Bottas improved the peak time to 1: 32.047 seconds, with Hamilton following him and advancing 0.219 seconds slower than his team-mate to second position.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
But shortly after Carlos Sainz Jr. and Perez had retracted a few minutes later in front of the world champion, Verstappen drove a lap that opened a clear gap to Mercedes.
The Red Bull driver set the best times of the session in the second and third sectors when he set a time of 1: 31,300 minutes, which was 0.747 seconds ahead of Bottas, after which Verstappen pitted almost 10 minutes before the end of the session and his car climbed out of the race.
Sainz was still good enough at 1: 32.195 minutes to hold third place behind the two drivers who led all three practice sessions this weekend. Charles Leclerc was in 11th place after catching a major oversteer snap on Turn 12 on his final lap on his best lap.
Perez and Hamilton followed Lando Norris, who finished sixth for McLaren, ahead of the Alonso-led Alpine duo.
Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo rounded off the top 10 for AlphaTauri and McLaren respectively.
Other drivers whose times were canceled because they ran too far at Turn 6 were Yuki Tsunoda (P17 in the second AlphaTauri) and Mazepin, who also half-turned after losing the rear of his car when he was just before the 20 minute mark.
Mazepin brought up the rear of the field, behind Schumacher and Williams driver Nicholas Latifi.
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