Verstappen quickest after third free practice in Monaco

Published on 22 May 2021 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen topped the board after the third free practice in the run up to the Monaco Grand Prix. The Dutchman lapped the 3,337 km. long track nineteen times and did a 1:11.294. With this the Red Bull Racing-driver seems to have put the difficult Thursday behind of him. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc kept the gap to Verstappen to a bare minimum and closed out the top three on behalf of Ferrari.

Under cloudy conditions and with 18 degrees on the thermometer, the third free practice kicks off. Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen is the first one out on the street circuit, followed not much later by Antonio Giovinazzi. Max Verstappen exits the pit lane well over ten minutes afterwards. On his first timed lap, the Dutchman does a 1:13.360 (P5) on the softs. After a cooldown-lap the Red Bull Racing-driver gets ready for another lap. His new attempt earns him a 1:12.495 with which he puts himself between both Ferraris in P2. Max is quickly dropped to third after Carlos Sainz betters his time.  

With still forty minutes remaining on the clock, Verstappen manages to improve on his time to a 1:11.759. At that moment the top six is formed by Charles Leclerc (1:11.658), Max Verstappen (+0.101), Carlos Sainz (+0.189), Sergio Pérez (+0.709), Valtteri Bottas (+0.712) and Antonio Giovinazzi (+0.905). Max continues on with his running on the softs and not much later squeezes out a 1:11.485, before heading back to the pits. We are then halfway the session.

With still well over fifteen minutes on the clock, we see Nicholas Latifi in the barriers at the exit of Turn sixteen. The Canadian driver walks away unharmed but his Williams is severly damaged by the impact. Race Control decides to red flag the session but because of the quick work by the marshals, the session is quickly resumed.

Max wastes no time when the lights turn green again and immediately takes to the track. He is unable to better his time on his first attempt but a second time round yielded what the Dutchman sought. He betters his time to a 1:11.294 and takes the lead away from Ferrari running Carlos Sainz. The final seconds of the session tick away with the red flag out: Mick Schumacher loses control of his car entering Turn four and subsequently runs into the tyre wall. And just like before the driver walks away unscathed, albeit that cannot be said for his Haas. He leaves his team with an almost impossible task in getting his car back in ship shape before qualifying starts.

After the session, Verstappen is at the top of the leaderboard with a 1:11.294 followed by Carlos Sainz (+0.047) and Charles Leclerc (+0.258) who both round out the top three. Surprisingly, Mercedes is only fourth and seventh fastest with Bottas and Hamilton.

Contest Monaco GP: win a 1:43 scale model of Max' 10th F3-win in 2014!

Results third free practice Monaco: