FP3: Verstappen dominates final practice at Le Castellet

F1 Grand Prix, GP France, Circuit Paul Ricard

Max Verstappen put in a stellar performance to dominate the third and final practice for the French Grand Prix, beating Mercedes' Finn driver Valtteri Bottas. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz delivered a surprising performance, ending up third fastest ahead of the important qualifying session.

Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton looked to continue his struggle in the final practice, failing to match the speed of his team mate Valtteri Bottas. However, the Finn was able to keep up with the pace of Max Verstappen on the first set of soft tyres.

When the top drivers headed out on to the Paul Ricard track on their second set of fresh C4 compound, Verstappen found an enormous chunk of improvement, posting the fastest time of the weekend with a 1m31.300. Bottas also improved his previous best, recording a 1:32.047. He ended up second fastest, but the gap to Verstappen was over seven tenths of a second.

While Ferrari looked less competitive yesterday following their strong showing in Baku and Monaco, the Italian team seemed to have found a better setup for its SF21. Carlos Sainz posted a 1m32.195 to finish third with his team mate Charles Lecelrc also showing signs of good speed. However, the Monegasque ended up in P11 as he was unable to put a good lap together despite his promising pace.

Baku race winner Sergio Perez struggled for pace on the soft compound yesterday. The Mexican looked to be more comfortable in his RB16B, but he was still almost a second off his team mate's benchmark.