Lando Norris maintained his supremacy in the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix as he topped the final practice session from teammate Oscar Piastri as rivals scrambled to keep up with McLaren.
Norris posted a blistering lap of 1:08.972 to go over two tenths faster than Piastri who lead the 2025 Formula 1 Drivers' Championship by nine points as McLaren drivers will be battling themselves when qualifying begins later today.
Third fastest, but by a margin, was Mercedes' George Russell who was over eighth tenths off the pace as Carlos Sainz was fourth fastest in the Williams, half a tenth behind the Briton.
The came Max Verstappen, 0.012s behind Sainz in fifth and almost one second off the pace of Norris as the Red Bull Racing apparently seem unable to find any solutions for their RB21.
Charles Leclerc was fractionally slower than Verstappen and sixth fastest with Alex Albon further behind in seventh.
Lance Stroll was seventh fastest, 1.131s off the pace as Isack Hadjar was eighth in the VCARB with Fernando Alonso completing the top ten.
Worth noting that Alonso's time was not the best reflection of his performance and he should be battling for a better position come qualifying. He did not get a decent Soft-tyre-run.
Major names outside the top ten: Lewis Hamilton who was down in 14th and 1.401s off the pace.
Buildup towards FP3
McLaren and Norris reigned over the proceedings on Friday at Zandvoort, as the Briton was the fastest in both practice sessions while Piastri trailed.
But it was Aston Martin that emerged as the surprise of the first day of the Dutch Grand Prix, as both drivers were behind the McLarens, which was a positive day for the British team only tarnished by the amateurish crash by Stroll in FP2.
Ferrari were very bad in FP1 but less bad in FP2, while Verstappen appears to have a mountain to climb and will be hoping Red Bull Racing engineers will find some solutions to sort out his ever-misbehaving RB21, but the situation for the four-time Formula 1 Champion at his home races seems bleak so far.
Running around the Zandvoort was tricky in windy conditions with the threat of rain. Drivers were spinning, running off, and crashing left, right, and center as they worked on learning the limits of the circuit.
It has rain heavily overnight and in the morning which will not be something good in terms of grip on the track as all the rubber the cars laid down on Friday is now gone.
Now we head into the final practice session ahead of qualifying with weather forecast predicting better conditions for the rest of the day.
FP3 Session Highlights
The session started in partly cloudy and drying conditions with track and air temperatures both registering 20 degrees Celsius. The conditions remained windy.
The track was declared wet by the stewards which meant teams could use the Intermediate tyres. The drivers took their time taking to the track.
Six minutes into the session, Hadjar emerged on Intermediate tyres for an out lap and then boxed. He was definitely doing some initial checks on his car after the power unit issue he suffered on Friday.
The Kimi Antonelli, in the Mercedes, then made his way out on Medium tyres as Hulkenberg, Norris, Stroll, Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto also joined.
They were on a mix of Hards and Mediums while Stroll went out on the Inters.
But action remained slow as only six drivers were on track with 15 minutes already gone from the session. Only five lap times were posted: Bortoleto - Antonelli - Nico Hulkenberg - Franco Colapinto - Pierre Gasly.
Aston Martin went for an early qualifying run with Alonso going to the top.
Then as running edged towards midway in the session, both McLaren went for Soft tyres and went for some hot laps.
Then Antonelli reported a problem with the downshift paddle on his Mercedes. The team responded that they will check it.
After some running on Medium tyres the drivers returned to some Soft-tyre running as the session entered the final 15 minutes.
Norris went for another run while Verstappen went for his first run on Softs and while he went second behind Norris, he was almost a second off the pace!
Piastri then went second fastest over two tenths behind his teammate. Then Hamilton had to abort his first lap on Softs after exceeding track limits.
Then Alonso and Russell had a close moment at the pit enty and were lucky not to have contact.
The session was concluded with practice starts.
Dutch GP FP3 Classification
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