Max Verstappen once again topped the timesheets this morning in France, with the fastest lap in 1:31.300s – while the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez went 4th fastest.
Valtteri Bottas came second, and is the closest Mercedes to the Red Bull driver, but was .7s behind on the soft Pirellis.
His world champion teammate was further afield in P5 and will have to see a major increase in his W12 performance to land pole later today.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz improved on his P8 finish yesterday afternoon and was third on the timesheets this morning ahead of this afternoon’s battle for tomorrow’s pecking order.
McLaren’s Lando Norris had a good morning and sits sixth fastest, ahead of his Aussie teammate who was in tenth when time ran out amongst a very close midfield.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon filled P7 and P8 this morning while the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly was ninth.
Speaking ahead of this morning’s run, Alonso said; “It’s going to be very very close in the midfield and a couple of tenths will change a lot. So let’s see if we are in that high part [of the grid].”
Qualifying kicks off at 2 pm this afternoon, until then, here are the full results from FP3:
