EMILIA ROMAGNA GP – Lando Norris leads McLaren one-two going a tenth ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri in third practice
Lando Norris led a McLaren one-two in third practice for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, the Englishman set a 14.897 going a tenth faster than teammate Oscar Piastri. The two go into the first European race of the season looking to maintain their advantage over their rivals though Max Verstappen was eight hundredths behind.
After being shaded by his championship-leading team-mate Piastri in both of Friday’s practice sessions at Imola, Norris turned the tables in the final session before the qualifying, one of the more important sessions. On his soft run, Norris was exactly one-tenth of a second faster than Piastri’s, although the latter’s best effort came on his second lap on Pirelli’s new softest compound when performance from the tyre would not have been quite as strong.
Verstappen’s time was impressive coming on the theoretically slower mediums, with Pirelli’s new C6 tyre – the quickest compound in the Italian manufacturer’s range which is debuting at Imola this weekend.
Piastri said on Friday, that McLaren needed to find a bit more the question will be whether they have found what they need for qualifying ahead of one of the more important sessions of the season. But many are still expecting them to be the team to beat at the start of the European season, despite several upgrades at the start of the second triple header of the season.
Verstappen was three-tenths faster than Kimi Antonelli, the Italian heading into his official home Grand Prix having grown up in the regional capital Bologna, but he was half a second off Norris as the Mercedes went half a tenth ahead of Charles Leclerc. Leclerc was half a tenth ahead of the Williams and former teammate Carlos Sainz.
Isack Hadjar recovered from his crash on Friday going seventh a tenth and a half behind Sainz as the Racing Bull went a tenth and a half ahead of George Russell. Hadjar had been the first onto qualifying simulations going fastest at that point in the session with a 15.508, but couldn’t better his time during the second half of FP3.
Alex Albon made it both Williams in the top ten as they continued their strong start to the season, he was seven hundredths behind Russell and half a tenth ahead of Lewis Hamilton, completing the top ten.
With attentions from many turning to the soft-shod flying runs, Russell ran wide out on track before reporting: “This ride is definitely a bit worse today.” The Mercedes man was not the only one to have a wobble, with Verstappen and Piastri also making mistakes during their laps.
Both Ferraris had struggled on Friday with braking problems, they were out early to find out if a solution had been found.
Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin eleventh missing out on the top ten by three hundredths, as Ollie Bearman spilt the two Aston’s as he went three hundredths ahead of Lance Stroll. But the Haas was about a tenth and a quarter behind the two-time champion.
Liam Lawson was fourteenth as he went two thousandths of a second behind Stroll and just over a hundredth faster than Gabriel Bortoleto. Yuki Tsunoda had to settle for seventeenth, and complained he had “absolutely zero pace.”
Franco Colapinto, who replaces Jack Doohan for the next five races, was eighteenth almost three hundredths ahead of Nico Hulkenberg. Esteban Ocon completed the field a tenth and a half behind the Sauber.