Kimi Antonelli sets the pace in Monaco. The championship leader is the fastest on the street circuit in the third free practice, followed by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. The session is temporarily halted because Oliver Bearman causes a red flag.
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The drivers hit the asphalt at 12:30 local time for the dress rehearsal for the most important qualifying of the season. In this final free practice, they can tweak the last things on the setup for the spectacle later today.
The Ferraris set the pace in the first and second free practice sessions and are now entering the session as favorites again. That is not the case for the Cadillac team. First, Valtteri Bottas reports smoke coming from his brakes and he drives back to the pit lane at a snail’s pace. Then, something also starts to smolder in teammate Sergio Pérez’s brake system, and the Mexican also immediately heads back to his mechanics.
All drivers are on soft tires and the track gets faster by the minute. They are also increasingly pushing the limit and getting more into the rhythm of Monaco. After half an hour, however, it is not Ferrari but Mercedes at the top of the timesheet. Championship leader Antonelli is a full two tenths faster than local hero Leclerc.
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In the final part of the session, the drivers, equipped with a new set of tires, buckle down again. The Italian driver in the service of Mercedes rockets across the track and is the first to dip below 1:13. The Ferrari drivers and teammate Russell struggle with Antonelli’s time but don’t come close.
Then, with fifteen minutes still on the clock, the red flag is waved. Oliver Bearman crashes into the barrier near Hotel Paris, and it’s game over for the Brit. The marshals need a little more time than expected to get things ready, and the teams and drivers wait impatiently in the pit lane. When only four minutes remain, they are released again.
Nobody can improve their time, and so Antonelli finishes the third free practice as the fastest, followed by Leclerc and Hamilton. Verstappen remains stuck in P5 and concedes almost a second to the young Italian.
Qualifying starts this afternoon at 4:00 PM.
Read everything about the Monaco GP here
