FP3: Hamilton jumps to the top in final practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP Steiermark, Red Bull Ring

After Red Bull's Max Verstappen dominated the Friday sessions for the Styrian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton recorded the fastest lap of the weekend to top the final practice just two hours ahead of the qualifying session.

While teams and drivers were in a hurry yesterday due to the continuously threatening rain that did not materialize, the final practice started with the sun beating down on the Red Bull Ring. It meant that the first minutes went by without any hectic action.

The two Haas drivers, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin kick-started the action with both of them putting focus on the hard compound which the American team was unable to experiment with yesterday.

During the first runs, drivers were divided in terms of tyre compounds with many using the medium rubber, but the Mercedes, Red Bull and AlphaTauri drivers opted for the soft C4 compound.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen continued his impressive form, setting the early pace. However, Mercedes found an eye-catching jump in performance when they bolted on their second fresh set of soft tyres.

The AlphaTauris enjoyed some promising pace on Saturday morning, with Yuki Tsunoda having the upper hand over his team mate Pierre Gasly. The Japanese racer posted a time of 1m05.150s to finish in P5, going over a tenth of a second faster than his French team mate.

The fight in the midfield was as fierce as ever with only tiny margins separating the likes of Ferrari, Alpine and Aston Martin with Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Williams’ George Russell also getting involved in the fight.

After their impressive day yesterday, McLaren appeared to be keeping their powder dry in FP3, Daniel Ricciardo only 17th while Lando Norris was 19th, having had a key lap deleted.