Verstappen leads Norris, Hamilton’s RP3

Max Verstappen overtook the third practice session for the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna 2021 with over 0.4 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, while Lewis Hamilton finished third in an action-packed session.

The last practice session was in cold and slowly rising temperatures, which meant that many drivers set their best times on their second or even third qualifying simulation attempts with a set run.

There were also several incidents and a brief red flag, as well as a cascade of times cleared for various track limit violations, as drivers prepared for the limit before qualifying.

Most teams chose to stay in their garages for the first 15 minutes, which resulted in Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen driving alone before being escorted by the two Haas cars.

Raikkonen lost the initial benchmark time of the session due to a route restriction violation after running too far through the Piratella curve the first time, but his next flight lap – on medium tires – brought the P1 time to 1: 17.331 minutes .

This time remained the fastest until after a quarter of the session the Ferrari cars led most of the field onto the track. Charles Leclerc left his crash behind at the end of FP2 by setting the fastest time on his first flight lap.

This effort of 1: 17.321 minutes was also put on the middle tires, with which he lowered the benchmark again to 1: 16.795 seconds a few minutes later – shortly after team-mate Carlos Sainz briefly took the top spot.

Sergio Perez was the first of the Red Bull and Mercedes cars to run out after 20 minutes and he used the middle tires to drive P1 with a time of 1: 16.332 and ended up flirting with the edge of the gravel trap between them both Rivazza lefts of the round.

Bottas briefly took the top spot in his first flight lap – the Mercedes cars avoid any early run on the media and come straight out on the softs – but he lost this time on another route that limits violations.

The session was then briefly interrupted by a red flag after Nicholas Latifi lost the stern of his Williams, which shot through the Villeneuve chicane. As a result, he ran through the gravel at the exit and knocked off the left side of his front wing.

Although Latifi was able to withdraw and hobble back to the pits, the session was suspended for a few minutes while the debris was cleared.

When the action resumed, Verstappen took first place in his first flight lap – also directly on the softs, although the Dutchman had missed all long-term data acquisition in FP2 due to his problem with the drive shaft.

But this time – a time of 1: 16.251 minutes – was cleared for Verstappen, who went too far in Piratella, and in any case it was quickly beaten by Bottas’ attempt of 1: 15.984 minutes.

This time was set in the second lap of the Mercedes driver’s flight, and a few minutes later Verstappen found enough time on a third flight – he had to get off a second train after collapsing on the curbs at the exit of the Acque Minerali curves and bounced hard back onto the track.

Verstappen’s 1: 15.895 minutes brought him the fastest before Pierre Gasly shot the left-hander to first place in the media a few minutes after a near miss from the Tosa hairpin.

But the soft tire runners soon took back the P1 benchmark – led by Leclerc with a time of 1: 15.738 minutes.

Hamilton, who was another driver who lost his first flight lap for violating the route restrictions in Piratella, took first place with 1: 15.515 minutes – before Lando Norris was the fastest on the second flight lap of his run with 1: 15 minutes . 414s.

After Raikkonen drove left through the gravel at the exit of the first Rivazza – the Finn understeer almost immediately when he arrived at high speed – Verstappen seemed to set the best time for the session.

Although the lap didn’t seem smooth overall – and Verstappen couldn’t improve Norris’ best time in sector one – he flashed the last two-thirds of the lap and was the fastest with a time of 1: 14.958 seconds, 0.456 seconds.

The action was dampened in the final minutes as Antonio Giovinazzi spun at low speed on cold tires, exiting the Tamburello chicane as the final notable event.

Norris was therefore second ahead of Hamilton and Perez, Leclerc fifth for Ferrari.

Gasly ran a streak on the softs towards the end of the session, but his best time remained his effort on the media when he finished sixth.

Sainz was seventh in the second Ferrari, Bottas was eighth ahead of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.

Latifi finished 17th ahead of Giovinazzi and Raikkonen.