#EmiliaRomagnaGP FP3: @OscarPiastri leads @McLarenF1 one-two. #F1 #ImolaGP

Piastri Emilia Romagna FP3 – Oscar Piastri lead from team-mate Lando Norris in a McLaren one-two in the final FP3 session before qualifying at the Emilia Romagna GP as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rounded out the top three as Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso crashed out.

Piastri posted the session-topping benchmark of a 1:15.529 on the C5 red side-walled Soft compounds and was 0.300 seconds clear of team-mate Norris as Sainz was a further 0.538 seconds adrift of the Australian in third.

Perez’s late shunt at Variante Alta, which lead to a one-last chance to set a qualifying simulation flyer, where only Norris was able to post a representative time, which put him below his McLaren team-mate in second.

A heap of drivers failed to set a time in this late rush, including three-time world champion Max Verstappen, who now heads into qualifying without a proper time on the softer rubber, as he and Perez spent the early phase of proceedings focusing on their overnight set-up on the C4 yellow-marked Mediums.

Ferrari pairing Sainz and Charles Leclerc were third and fourth respectively with the efforts they set during a string of soft tyre stints in the final third of proceedings.

Leclerc did attempt to push for another flyer as he overtook several drivers including team-mate Sainz with an aggressive out-lap as time was running out.

But having got by Piastri and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly on the run to begin his final hot-lap, Leclerc’s sector one was slower than his personal best and he abandoned it.

Piastri’s session-topper – a 1:15.529 – came with ten minutes remaining as the field were preparing for their late flying laps, but Perez’s shunt cut these efforts short and meant if drivers had more time to run properly again, they all had to do it on a scrub set, including Norris at the front of the pack.

Perez lost the rear of his Honda-RBPT-powered RB20 racer as he bounced down to earth having jumped the kerbs at Variante Alta’s initial apex and his correction sent the Mexican into the gravel trap and barriers.

The Red Bull drivers’ personal best on the mediums meant he was demoted to 12^th by those that did manage to have time to improve on their efforts, which included Mercedes’ George Russell moving up into fifth ahead of Verstappen in a session where both Mercedes drivers complained of different ride issues.

The other red flag came courtesy of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso at the midway point of proceedings when the double world champion lost control of the rear of his Mercedes-powered AMR24 racer turning in from the kerbs between the Rivazza corners and spun off backwards into the barriers on the outside of the last turn.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon placed eighth as Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten.

RB’s Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda finished final practice in 11^th and 13^th places respectively as the aforementioned Perez split the pairing in 12^th.

Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas took 14^th and ahead of Williams’ Logan Sargeant who was 15^th and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who came 16^th in the order.

Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton ended the session a low-17^th and in-front of the aforementioned Aston Martin of Alonso who took 18^th as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 MSC Cruises Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell’Emilia Romagna 2024 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1235/italy/practice-3.html

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