#F1 #MonacoGP FP3: @CharlesLeclerc heads time-sheets in-front of @Max33Verstappen.

Leclerc Monaco GP FP3 – Home favourite Charles Leclerc continued his solid form ending the final practice session quickest at the Monaco GP ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen as Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton completed the top three.

Leclerc posted the session-topping benchmark of a 1:11.369 on the C5 red side-walled Soft compounds and was 0.197 seconds clear of Verstappen whilst Hamilton was a further 0.341 off the Ferrari driver’s best time.

The session was red-flagged ten minutes in as Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas clipped the Swimming Pool exit wall, with the impact breaking the front-right suspension of his C44 racer and caused the Finn to park it at Rascasse.

Once Bottas’s C44 was cleared and moved behind the barriers as he could not recover to the pits, the session resumed – with all cars taking to the streets of Monte Carlo on high fuel to clock in multiple tours in preparation for the upcoming qualifying session.

Hamilton’s pre-hiatus hot-lap was quickly beaten by Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who in-turn was drawn into an early fight over P1 with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg.

The duo were outpaced by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who had tumbled the times down to a 1:12.684, before FP2 time-topper Leclerc went over a tenth faster to hit the top of the pile.

The Monegasque driver followed a similar trajectory as he done yesterday, where he continuously found time over the proceedings as the fuel continued to burn off and posted a 1:11.977 at the end of his opening stint on the softs.

After switching to another set of the C5 softer rubber, Leclerc turned the wick up on his SF-24 racer and set a solid 1:11.369 to end up 0.6 seconds quicker than Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz – who had not gone within 0.002 seconds of the Monegasque’s previous benchmark.

Given Leclerc’s gap – second was once again up for grabs as Verstappen pushed enough to post a 1:11.566, having often gone purple in sector one but lost it in the final two.

The championship leader attempted to improve his effort towards the end but was blocked by his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.

Hamilton wound up third quickest despite a less-than-clean FP3 session, having got stuck by former team-mate Bottas at Rascasse in the earlier phase and then losing time due to a massive lock-up at St. Devote – where he heavily flat-spotted his tyres.

Piastri took the fourth fastest effort, which could not be beaten by Perez’s final-minute effort, which was good enough for fifth; the Mexican said over the radio that his Honda-powered RB20 racer was ‘nowhere’.

Russell and Sainz followed in sixth and seventh respectively with McLaren’s Lando Norris taking eighth as RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly finished FP3 outside the top ten in 11^th place and ahead of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who was 12^th and MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg who ended the session 13^th in the classification.

The other Haas VF-24 entry of Kevin Magnussen took 14^th and in-front of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who placed 15^th and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who took 16^th.

Williams’ Logan Sargeant who came 17^th in the order whilst RB’s Daniel Ricciardo ended final practice in a low-18^th as Sauber pairing Zhou Guanyu and the aforementioned Bottas brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2024 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1236/monaco/practice-3.html

2024 F1 World Championship Standings

#F1 #MonacoGP FP2: @CharlesLeclerc quickest ahead of @LewisHamilton, @alo_oficial.

#F1 #MonacoGP FP1: @LewisHamilton pips @OscarPiastri by 0.029s, @Max33Verstappen 11th.

#F1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2024 Preview. #Formula1 #MonacoGrandPrix