Azerbaijan GP FP3: Norris from Verstappen, don't miss qualifying

Norris bounced back nicely from his crash in FP2 on Friday and went on to post a lap time of 1:41.223 to go fastest of all with Verstappen 0.222s behind him in second.

It was tricky session for the Formula 1 drivers and teams as rain that hit the Baku track overnight washed out all the rubber laid down on Friday while extremely winding conditions meant keeping the cars pointing in the right direction was even trickier for drivers with several having off moments throughout FP3.

Oscar Piastri ended the session third fastest, two and a half tenths off the pace of his teammate and ahead of Lewis Hamilton who was fourth in the Ferrari, just 0.022s behind the Australian.

While Ferrari seemed to be the strongest team on Friday, McLaren returned to the top with Red Bull Racing also managing to find some pace in their RB21.

Kimi Antonelli and George Russell then came fifth and sixth respectively, the latter particularly not happy with some setup changes on his car after being much more satisfied on Friday.

It was a decent session for Alex Albon who was seventh fastest in the Williams ahead of Ollie Bearman who once again featured in the top ten being eighth fastest.

Liam Lawson was ninth with Isack Hadjar in 11th as Charles Leclerc splitting the Racing Bulls in tenth.

All in all, FP3 has set the stage for an exciting qualifying with a fight between the McLarens, Verstappen, and the Ferraris expected.

Friday in Baku was an interesting day with several aspects worthy of noting as the buildup for the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix started.

Ferrari and Hamilton ended the day on top, and the latter was buoyed by the form he displayed after revealing a breakthrough in brake setup, which made him more confident in the SF-25, so can he maintain this form today through to qualifying? And what will Leclerc, who is targeting a fifth consecutive pole in Baku, do about that?

McLaren had a tough day, not able to extract the pace from both their MCL39s, with costly errors from Norris meaning he had almost no running in FP2, while Piastri did not seem at ease with his car.

As for Verstappen, he did not feature up there in terms of headline times, but he did feel quietly confident after the running, so expect him to be up there when the good gets going in qualifying later on Saturday.

Mercedes looked good, but they have done so before and then dropped, so can they maintain this pace?

However, the big question after Friday in Baku remains the tyre choice for qualifying, Q3 in particular. The C6 Pirelli (Soft), while delivering pace, cannot maintain it for the full lap, as the C5 (Medium) seems close in terms of performance but more robust for the whole lap.

We saw the like of Fernando Alonso and Russell banking on the C5 before when the C6 was the other option. Will more drivers do this today?

The session started in sunny, dry yet blustery conditions with track temperatures recording 34 degrees Celsius, even higher than Friday while air temperature was 22 degrees.

It rained overnight, so the grip on the track was compromised.

It wasn't an immediate start for the session and seven minutes passed before we saw the first car heading out on track.

Lawson and Hadjar were the first to hit the track the latter immediately radioing: "The wind is pushing me a lot to the right on the straight!"

Soon after that, Bearman was complaining about the wing as well.

Twenty minutes into the session and there were only five lap times on the board. Verstappen, Russell, and Antonelli did not even get out of their respective garages.

Norris was asked about his front wing and he wasn't happy saying: "It's just sketchy everywhere for the time being. Every corner feels worse I would say."

Leclerc was on a great lap but then had a scary snap going into Turn 16 and went fastest regardless. Just before he did that, Hamilton missed his braking and ended up in the runoff area of Turn 3 bringing out a brief Yellow flag.

With 35 minutes remaining, Verstappen finally posted a lap, second fastest behind Leclerc while Gabriel Bortoleto brought out another Yellow flag after ending up in the escape road at Turn 3.

Then Pierre Gasly had a moment with the wall at Turn 5 and then ran wide at Turn 1. Then Leclerc brushed the wall at Turn 7 but got away with it.

"Any puncture?" he radioed after another touch at Turn 13. The answer was: "Not yet."

The track continued to improve as the times continued to drop and the names reshuffled on the leader board.

Lawson then had a 360 at Turn 16 and kept going.

Piastri then had a huge snap of oversteer at Turn 4, the place where Norris crashed on Friday. The Australian somehow managed to hold it and kept going.

Bearman on the other hand also had an off-track moment causing a brief Yellow flag. Then Piastri had another moment at Turn 1 ending up in the runoff area.

Albon then radioed: "I think the wind is picking up a lot." He said that after missing Turn 4 and ending up in the escape road.

Russell then complained about setup changes on his car claiming he was locking up at every corner...

Then Norris went deep into Turn 1 and caused a another Yellow Flag. The Ocon messed up Turn 3 with Leclerc following him into the runoff of the same corner almost simultaneously.

The session was concluded with practice starts.