F1 Australian GP: Verstappen fastest from Alonso in FP3

After Friday's rain-affected FP2, Saturday's final practice session predominantly took place on a dry Albert Park circuit despite the threatening Melbourne clouds, although a morning drizzle had further washed away the rubber that had been built up over the weekend.

Due to the Friday disruptions most teams wasted little time taking to the track to get both their high fuel and qualifying runs in.

World champion Verstappen opened his account with a 1m19.664s on medium tyres and after briefly being deposed by Ferrari man Carlos Sainz's soft-tyre effort the Dutchman reclaimed his early P1 with a 1m18.741s.

Verstappen's time, the only medium lap from the frontrunners, was soon bested by the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque went top with a 1m18.731s on softs, which he then filed down to a 1m.18.691s.

The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez remained in the garage for the opening stages as the Mexican's mechanics worked on the rear of his RB19. Following Friday's messy sessions, the loss of track time was even more costly for Perez than usual.

After the 15-minute mark, times took another tumble with Fernando Alonso setting a 1m18.329s in his soft-shod Aston Martin, which was instantly improved upon with a 1m18.127s fired in by Sainz.

Fortunately for Perez, his mechanical issue was resolved so he could join the session after 20 minutes, but he fumed as he was nearly put into the wall on his first push lap by the cruising Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.

The session was briefly red-flagged just past the halfway mark for a large piece of debris from Nyck De Vries's AlphaTauri sidepod, which landed near the racing line near the fast Turn 9 kink, but after three minutes the action continued uninterrupted until the chequered flag.

The rapidly improving track conditions led to a barrage of fast times in the final 10 minutes, before a drizzle near Turn 1 intensified and caused the likes of Perez and Leclerc to run wide.

Alonso briefly grabbed top with a 1m17.727s, only for the following car of Verstappen to demote him with a 1m17.565s. Alpine's Esteban Ocon also utilised the improved track conditions to move up the order, taking third 0.373s behind Verstappen and 0.017s ahead of Mercedes man George Russell.

The second Alpine of Pierre Gasly was fifth, followed by Perez, who saw two of his hot laps ruined by locking up under braking and taking to the run-off. Sainz and Lewis Hamilton, who was blocked on his final flyer, followed in seventh and eighth, while Aston's Lance Stroll and Zhou rounded out the top 10.

Hulkenberg was 11th for Haas ahead of Williams man Alex Albon and Leclerc, who didn't get a final lap in. Local favourite Oscar Piastri was 14th for McLaren, following by the second Alfa of Valtteri Bottas and AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda.

Logan Sargeant (Williams) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) were next up, with De Vries and Lando Norris propping up the timesheets.

Norris only ran 12 laps, sitting out the last part of the session with a clutch problem on his McLaren.

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen		24	1'17.565			244.966
2	Fernando Alonso		26	1'17.727	0.162	0.162	244.455
3	Esteban Ocon		23	1'17.938	0.373	0.211	243.793
4	George Russell		23	1'17.955	0.390	0.017	243.740
5	Pierre Gasly		23	1'18.094	0.529	0.139	243.306
6	Sergio Perez		18	1'18.123	0.558	0.029	243.216
7	Carlos Sainz		29	1'18.127	0.562	0.004	243.204
8	Lewis Hamilton		25	1'18.138	0.573	0.011	243.169
9	Lance Stroll		22	1'18.198	0.633	0.060	242.983
10	Zhou Guanyu		20	1'18.330	0.765	0.132	242.573
11	Nico Hulkenberg		24	1'18.410	0.845	0.080	242.326
12	Alex Albon		21	1'18.553	0.988	0.143	241.885
13	Charles Leclerc		28	1'18.691	1.126	0.138	241.460
14	Oscar Piastri		21	1'18.713	1.148	0.022	241.393
15	Valtteri Bottas		24	1'18.809	1.244	0.096	241.099
16	Yuki Tsunoda		22	1'18.901	1.336	0.092	240.818
17	Logan Sargeant		20	1'18.947	1.382	0.046	240.677
18	Kevin Magnussen		26	1'19.056	1.491	0.109	240.346
19	Nyck de Vries		23	1'19.092	1.527	0.036	240.236
20	Lando Norris		12	1'19.146	1.581	0.054	240.072
View full results