Monaco, FP3: Pérez quickest in final practice

Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez took top spot in final practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc’s by four hundredths of a second, with Carlos Sainz third in the other Ferrari ahead of World Championship leader Max Verstappen.

At the start of the session, Leclerc set the benchmark after eight minutes with a lap of 1:14.008 that put him ahead of Sainz. Pérez and Verstappen then took to the track but they couldn’t make a dent on the Monegasque driver’s time, with both crossing the line some four tenths adrift of the lead Ferrari.

Leclerc then went quicker, lowering the bar to 1:13.647 but this time the Red Bull’s responded and as they traded best laps the P1 time steadily fell until just shy of the halfway mark Leclerc took P1 with a lap of 1:12.885.

McLaren’s Lando Norris then put in a good lap to go third but the Briton was quickly beaten by Pierre Gasly as AlphaTauri continued to look potent on the streets of the Principality. That signalled that there was more lap time to find and when the Ferraris and Red Bulls rejoined the action they again entered into a private battle for top spot.

With three minutes left in the session and having just put in a lap of 1:12.554 Pérez looked to have done enough, but Leclerc found more pace and bumped the Mexican to P2 with a time of 1:12.517. Pérez was winding up for a final attempt, however, and his final flyer netted the Red Bull driver a lap of 1:12.476 lap and top spot, by 0.041s.

Sainz took third place, three tenths of a second behind the top pair, while Verstappen took the flag four tenths of a second adrift of his team-mate.

Gasly kept hold of fifth ahead of Norris, while Lewis Hamilton was the highest-placed Mercedes in seventh place, nine tenths of a second off the leaders.

Kevin Magnussen finished eighth for Haas ahead of the other Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso.

While Pérez finished the session at the top of the order he was summoned to the stewards’ office after the session as they looked into an incident between the Mexican and Russell in which the Red Bull appeared to impede the Mercedes.