#F1 #DutchGP FP3: @PierreGASLY tops session as @LoganSargeant suffers heavy crash.

Gasly Dutch GP FP3 – Alpine’s Pierre Gasly topped the FP3 session at the Dutch GP, following a long 44-minute stoppage for Williams’ Logan Sargeant’s heavy shunt at the exit of turn three.

Gasly posted the benchmark of a 1:20.311 on the green-marked intermediates and was 0.139 seconds quicker than MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen whilst Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas was a further 0.844 sessions adrift in third.

In the wet conditions following the emergence of overnight rain in Zandvoort, Sargeant had put his FW46 racer into the wall after running over the kerb and running over the slippery grass on the exit of turn three, the Hugenholtz-banked corner.

This sent the Williams into the opposite barrier and inflicted heavy damage onto his Mercedes-powered FW46. A fire erupted out of the rear as a fuel line was presumably severed in the shunt.

Sargeant was able to jump out of the car rapidly, although the nature of the impact caused heavy damage to the Armco barrier and left a line of residue along the circuit.

This saw a 44-minute delay to repair the barrier, as the early proceedings had ended with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso on top of the pile having found 0.4 seconds over McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who had posted the earlier benchmark.

Race control suggested that the session could resume with five minutes left on the clock, but this was delayed as the barrier was not yet ready; instead, there would be only two minutes of running at the end of the session.

Alonso had been at the top of the time-sheets ahead of the final flurry of flyers and the condensed running available saw a dash to register a lap-time on the intermediate compound.

Although Magnussen had originally jumped to the top, Gasly captured the P1 slot at the chequered flag.

The Haas driver’s effort was good enough for second as Bottas and McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the top four – ahead of Alonso’s pre-stoppage benchmark.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is currently under investigation for jockeying over the pit-exit line, where he overtook Piastri on the inside of the pit-exit and also forced his way past Russell – but put his left-rear wheel over the white line on the pit-exit.

The other Alpine A524 entry of Esteban Ocon placed sixth and ahead of McLaren’s Piastri who ended FP3 in seventh on the time-sheets.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was eighth as the other Haas VF-24 entry of Nico Hulkenberg and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rounded out the top ten.

Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu ended final practice outside the top ten in 11^th place and in-front of the aforementioned Sargeant who took 12^th and Mercedes’ George Russell who placed 13^th in the order.

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon followed in 14^th and ahead of Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton who was 15^th and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who took 16^th in the classification.

Championship leader Verstappen and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez were 17^th and finished at the rear respectively as RB’s Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda split the sister team pairing in 18^th and 19^th.

Both Tsunoda and Perez did not register a lap-time.

You can see the full Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2024/races/1243/netherlands/practice/3

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