Mexico City Grand Prix FP3: Piastri tops, Verstappen struggling
F1 NewsSaturday, 26 October 2024 at 20:36
Oscar Piastri topped the final practice session for the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix, with Lando Norris second fastest while Max Verstappen's struggles continued.
While the session started with Ferrari having the upper hand with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc spending most of the 60-minute practice on top of the timing screens, McLaren turned the tables on the Reds in the final qualifying simulations late into the session.
As such, Piastri set the fastest lap with Norris behind him in second as McLaren head into qualifying with an advantage over their rivals; mainly Ferrari.
Carlos Sainz was third fastest while Verstappen was fourth and quite a way behind Piastri as the triple Formula 1 champion was yet to get on top of his RB20's handling.
After spending Friday in the team garage with a power unit issue that require getting it changed, Verstappen only had FP3 to set his car up for qualifying and the race, and from how things went, he is yet to find the sweet spot which raises the question whether Red Bull can turn things around before qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton was up next, fifth fastest in the Mercedes, while Leclerc could not improve in the final part of the session and was sixth.
Yuki Tsunoda, once again, was in good form and was in the top ten, seventh fastest in particular and ahead of George Russell in eighth as the Briton continues his attempt to come back from his costly crash on Friday afternoon.
Kevin Magnussen was ninth fastest while Liam Lawson confirmed VCARB's good form and was tenth.
Summing things up, McLaren seem to have surpassed early favorites Ferrari as Red Bull have work to do ahead of qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix, with Mercedes' form unknown once again.
Buildup towards FP3
What was clear after FP1 and FP2 on Friday is that Ferrari seem to be in decent form following their one-two finish in the US Grand Prix last weekend.
McLaren were close with Piastri, while Norris needs more time to get his car dialed in, especially after missing the first practice handing over his MCL38 to Pato O'Ward.
But the question that we came away with after Friday in Mexico: What is going on with Verstappen's RB20 and what is his true pace?
Maybe we find out in FP3 as Red Bull changed Verstappen's power unit overnight after finding a leak in the air circuit. He will not incur a penalty as the unit was within his allocated pool.
It was also a tough Friday for Mercedes. Russell, after topping FP1, crashed in FP2 and the team had to break curfew to finish rebuilding his car.
However, it would be smart to be cautious with predictions regarding the pecking order, as neither of the Friday practice sessions was straight forward.
The first was marred by two Red flags while several drivers were sidelined, making way for young drivers, not to mention the track was at its greenest.
As for the second session, Pirelli testing 2025 tyre prototypes meant the times may have been a bit skewed, but what was clear is that: Ferrari still look good.
So on to the final practice session, hoping that we can finally start drawing a clearer picture of the order.
FP3 Session Highlights
The temperatures dropped for Saturday, as track temperature was 35 degrees Celsius while air temperature was 18 degrees.
Russell was the first driver to get out on track on the Medium tyre eager to make up for time lost due to his crash on Friday.
Then Verstappen followed on Soft tyres, the only driver to start with that compound. He also has much to compensate for after effectively no running on Friday.
Verstappen soon reported: "I have no rear grip to be honest. Low speed mainly."
Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll, and Pierre Gasly were the only other drivers on track as the rest remained in the pits. They were on a combination of Medium and Hard tyres.
Hamilton soon joined the action and like Verstappen chose the Soft tyres but his time was slower than Verstappen's.
After that Russell pitted for Softs and went fastest, half a tenth faster than the #1 Red Bull.
Gasly, for the second time since Friday, went deep into Turn 1 and had another driver through the grass before rejoining the track.
15 minutes into the session and almost half the drivers have not headed out on track or set lap times yet, but soon the Ferraris join the action on Soft tyres and take the top two positions; Sainz then Leclerc. Hamilton improved to third.
Norris and Piastri followed, also on the red-walled tyres. Norris had to back off his first lap which was scruffy while Piastri could manage only fifth. Norris went third after a second attempt.
Russell on the other hand reported: "My left mirror is loose."
Then Lawson spun his VCARB at the penultimate corner bringing out the Yellow flag. No contact or damage though. He was soon back on his way.
Lawson was stranded in the middle of the track and was actually lucky he wasn't collected by any of the other drivers.
Norris went wide and bailed out on his lap while Piastri and Sainz had a moment on track, the former having to abort his lap and radioing: "Typical Carlos."
The second half of the session started with some long runs on harder tyres and high fuel loads.
Replay showed the mechanic that instructs Leclerc to exit the garage in the pitlane trip but restores his balance with some nice acrobatics. He was unharmed.
With 15 minutes remaining, Verstappen set out on another qualifying run on Soft tyres and went to the top of the timing screens, over three tenths clear of Sainz.
Norris soon went even faster, over four and half tenths clear of the Dutch driver. Russell went fifth, then Piastri took the top spot, over half a second clear of Verstappen. Hamilton was fourth.
Soon the Ferraris went for another run, but Sainz ended up third with Leclerc in sixth.
Verstappen soon went out for another run, but he was unhappy with how his RB20 was handling. He said his setup is "not working" complaining about of lack of front and rear grip.
Perez also was not a happy bunny, he said over the radio: "There is no potential on the front to attack the braking."
How they finished
Piastri posted a 1:16.492, the fastest lap time in FP3 which was 0.059s ahead of Norris in second and 0.340s ahead of Sainz in third.
Verstappen was 0.511s off the pace in fourth while Hamilton was 0.057s further down the road in fifth.
Leclerc, despite earlier promise, ended the session with his best lap being 1:17.060, seven and a half tenth slower than the top time and 0.070s ahead of Tsunoda in seventh.
Russell was 0.849s down on the top time in eighth and 0.133s head of Magnussen in ninth who, in turn, was 0.020s ahead of tenth-placed Lawson.
Mexico City Grand Prix FP3 Classification
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