Max fastest in wet final practice session in Montreal

Published on 17 June 2023 by Misha van der Kroon

Max Verstappen topped the third and final free practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari set the second fastest time, and Fernando Alonso closed the top three in his Aston Martin on a very wet Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve. Kevin Magnussen with Haas set the fourth fastest time, ahead of the other Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz.
Sergio Pérez, Verstappen’s teammate at Oracle Red Bull Racing, finished the session in P17.

It is almost dry when the third practice session is about to start. The track however is still wet from all the rain that has been falling, so starting on slicks seems out of the question. This final session has gained importance, as the weather forecast predicts a rainy qualifying session later today. With a current temperature of 14 degrees, and a track temperature of 17 degrees, the conditions are not ideal.

The two Haas drivers are the first ones on track once the lights go out. It’s the first time the public sees Pirelli’s new wet tyres, which don’t need tyre blankets, in action. Drivers joining the track very early on in the session do so on full wets.
Both Ferrari’s, both Red Bulls, Lando Norris in his McLaren and Pierre Gasly in his Alpine stay in the pits a little longer than the other drivers. Fernando Alonso quickly enters the pit to switch to the intermediate tyre. After about ten minutes, Max also leaves his garages on full wets.
Yuki Tsunoda is the first one to spin in this session, but continues without damage. After a few laps, Max has climbed to the top of the timings.

As the track dries up, drivers improve their lap times. Max switches for a set of intermediate tyres, but has fallen back to P3 when he rejoins the track. He cannot improve his time on his first fast lap on the intermediates. More rain is announced, making it more difficult to improve the already set lap times. 25 Minutes into the session, Max puts his head down and with three purple sectors he sets the fastest time so far. The Dutchman is 0.747 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc, who is in P2 with his Ferrari. The Monegask driver improves his time and briefly takes over P1 from Max, but the Red Bull driver immediately strikes back. 

Halfway through the session Carlos Sainz hits the barrier and brings out the red flag. The front wing of his Ferrari is completely gone and the rear wing severely damaged, but the Spaniard himself climbs out of his car unharmed. 

With 23 minutes on the clock the session resumes. Max lines up at the end of the pit lane for a practice start. By now it has stopped raining, but Oscar Piastri is informed over the team radio that more rain might come.
While drivers keep improving the times, the top 4 remains unchanged. Alonso climbs to P4 with around 15 minutes still to go. Max also improves his time and increases the gap to Sainz, who is in P2 and is unable to better his time due to his crash earlier. 

Just when the raindrops thicken, Max sharpens his time. With again three purple sectors, the Dutchman sets a time that is six tenths faster than his previous fastest lap. Leclerc pushes for another lap and manages to close the gap to Verstappen, taking P2 with two tenths behind the Red Bull driver. 

Heavy rain starts to fall again, making it very difficult to improve any lap times. The drivers all return to their garages, bringing FP3 to an end.

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Results third free practice Canada: