Ferrari duo edges ahead in final practice

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuveca

Sebastian Vettel was the fastest man in the third free practice session at Canada, edging out his team mate Kimi Raikkonen by 3 tenths. Lewis Hamilton followed in third spot but saw both Ferrari's ahead of him for the first time this weekend.

Just like in previous race weekends, Ferrari seem to have unlocked a bit of additional pace, and again slightly more than Mercedes appeared to have found. Underlining this fact is Max Verstappen who managed to split the Mercedes by setting a lap on the ultrasofts that was a close match to Lewis Hamilton's best effort.

Behind Bottas in 5th, Nico Hulkenberg emerged 6th, ahead of Felipe Massa and the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

The session was generally much cleaner than FP1 and FP2, with no spins and hardly any off-track moments. Perhaps the most important observation was Hamilton's effort on the super soft tyre, which ended up at 1m 13.516s. Given that yesterday's times appeared to indicate around a second of difference with the ultra softs, the Briton's performance was perhaps slightly better on that tyre than his eventual best effort on the purple ultra soft.

Qualifying will show the true differences later today...

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
15Sebastian VettelFerrari1:12.572-20
27Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:12.864+0.292s19
344Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:12.926+0.354s22
433Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:12.965+0.393s22
577Valtteri BottasMercedes1:13.210+0.638s24
627Nico HulkenbergRenault1:13.493+0.921s20
719Felipe MassaWilliams Mercedes1:13.527+0.955s22
83Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:13.545+0.973s35
931Esteban OconForce India Mercedes1:13.635+1.063s26
1055Carlos SainzToro Rosso1:13.667+1.095s22
1126Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1:13.788+1.216s23
1214Fernando AlonsoMcLaren Honda1:13.885+1.313s18
1311Sergio PerezForce India Mercedes1:13.956+1.384s27
148Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:13.994+1.422s19
1530Jolyon PalmerRenault1:14.102+1.530s22
162Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren Honda1:14.228+1.656s22
1720Kevin MagnussenHaas Ferrari1:14.392+1.820s18
1818Lance StrollWilliams Mercedes1:14.409+1.837s25
199Marcus EricssonSauber Ferrari1:14.883+2.311s25
2094Pascal WehrleinSauber Ferrari1:14.965+2.393s25