Sergio Perez put paid to Charles Leclerc’s practice hat-trick at home, pipping the Ferrari driver in the final minute of FP3 to finish quickest of all.
Red Bull and Ferrari resumed their battle in Saturday’s third practice for the Monaco Grand Prix where Perez was once again the faster of the two Red Bull drivers.
He took the fight to Leclerc, the two trading P1s late in the session with Perez coming out on top with a 1:12.476. Leclerc was 0.041s down.
Carlos Sainz was third ahead of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.
FP3 – Top 3 😊#MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/yS5VEkaeKi
— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) May 28, 2022
After his crash at the Swimming Pool chicane in second practice, Daniel Ricciardo was one of the first out on track as he put in a lap in his newly-repaired MCL36. McLaren broke curfew on Friday night to fix the car, the team revealing they did not need to change his chassis.
He was out on the soft Pirellis, the driver going third on his first flying lap as he lined up behind Fernando Alonso, a 1:14.757 for the Alpine driver, and Valtteri Bottas. Only five drivers set times in the opening 10 minutes.
And then the Ferraris and Red Bull came out to play…
Friday’s pace-setter Leclerc went quickest with a 1:14.008 before shaving that down to a 1:13.647 and then a 1:13.434 as he seemed to be able to ride the kerbs better than his rivals. Verstappen was up to P2 but a quarter of a second down on his title rival as it was evident his RB18 wasn’t handling quite as well.
As they upped their pace, Leclerc’s improvements followed by Verstappen’s, their team-mates battled over third place with Sainz holding the early advantage. That was until Perez went quickest of all.
The Mexican driver laid down a 1:13.297 with Leclerc clocking the exact same time but having to sit second on the timesheets as Perez did it first. Verstappen also found some pace but it was only enough for third.
Leclerc 📻 “Something weird is happening into Turn 1”
📻 “Yeah, I…
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