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Luke Smith

Dutch GP: Leclerc heads FP3 from Russell, Verstappen

After leading a Ferrari 1-2 in second practice on Friday evening, Leclerc continued his good form so far this weekend at Zandvoort by closing out FP3 at the top of the timesheets.

Leclerc finished just 0.066 seconds clear of Mercedes driver Russell, while home favourite Max Verstappen could only muster third place, a further tenth of a second off the pace.

It came after Verstappen had initially set a blistering pace with his opening runs in FP3, immediately beating Leclerc's benchmark from Friday on his first flying lap.

Despite reporting a loss of grip after just a single lap, Verstappen managed to whittle his best time down to a 1m12.196s with his first set of softs, putting him half a second clear of the field after the opening runs.

But following the switch to a fresh set of tyres and some set-up changes on his Ferrari that saw the car up on jacks for a portion of the session, Leclerc was able to claim P1 during the late qualifying simulations.

Leclerc set a best laptime of 1m11.632s, finding around a second from his previous best in the session to give him top spot at the chequered flag.

Russell signalled Mercedes' upswing in form after its struggles at Spa last weekend by taking P2, leaving Verstappen to settle for their place overall.

Verstappen got on the throttle too early exiting Turn 3 on his first flying lap at the end of the session, forcing him to catch the rear of the car to avoid a spin. The Dutchman's effort came in two-tenths slower than Leclerc's benchmark as a result.

It prompted Verstappen and Red Bull to go for a second push lap a few minutes later, but Verstappen ran a bit wide at the exit of Turn 3, meaning he could only make a small gain to finish the session 0.161s off the pace.

Carlos Sainz took fourth place for Ferrari, having briefly sat in the top spot following his late qualifying simulation. He finished three-tenths off teammate Leclerc at the head of the field.

Lewis Hamilton was also unable to match his teammate's pace as he took fifth overall, half a second back from Leclerc and over four-tenths off Russell in the sister Mercedes W13. Hamilton reported some traffic issues through FP2, while Russell spotted some pigeons sitting on the apex at Turn 7 during one of his early laps.

Red Bull opted for two runs with Sergio Perez late in the session as well, but he could only finish sixth, 0.544s off Leclerc's best time. Perez also faced criticism over the radio from Sainz, who complained about being held up into Turn 10.

Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel were two of the biggest gainers during the final runs in FP3, leaping up to seventh and eighth place respectively, while Mick Schumacher and Lando Norris managed to round out the top 10.

Kevin Magnussen capped off a good session for Haas by taking 11th, half a tenth off teammate Schumacher, while Lance Stroll was 12th overall for Aston Martin.

Alex Albon briefly sat as high as third for Williams in FP3 after being one of the first drivers to switch to soft tyres, but he eventually fell back to 13th. Esteban Ocon took 14th for Alpine ahead of AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly in P15, who was fortunate to avoid a late-session crash after running wide onto the grass at Turn 9.

AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda wound up 16th in PF3, two tenths back from Gasly, while Daniel Ricciardo was over seven tenths of a second slower than Norris for McLaren, leaving him 17th.

Alfa Romeo drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu ended practice 18th and 19th respectively, having both spent spells of the session in the garage while the team worked on their cars. It limited Alfa Romeo to fewer laps than any other team and left its drivers only ahead of Nicholas Latifi as the Canadian rounded out the classification in 20th for Williams.

Cla Driver Chassis Engine Laps Time Gap
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari Ferrari 20 1'11.632  
2 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes Mercedes 24 1'11.698 0.066
3 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Red Bull 22 1'11.793 0.161
4 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari Ferrari 17 1'11.971 0.339
5 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Mercedes 25 1'12.156 0.524
6 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull Red Bull 29 1'12.176 0.544
7 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine Renault 16 1'12.327 0.695
8 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin Mercedes 25 1'12.491 0.859
9 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas Ferrari 15 1'12.558 0.926
10 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 18 1'12.591 0.959
11 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 15 1'12.606 0.974
12 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin Mercedes 18 1'12.773 1.141
13 Thailand Alex Albon Williams Mercedes 18 1'12.775 1.143
14 France Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 20 1'13.003 1.371
15 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri Red Bull 23 1'13.046 1.414
16 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri Red Bull 22 1'13.256 1.624
17 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren Mercedes 20 1'13.299 1.667
18 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Ferrari 15 1'13.359 1.727
19 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo Ferrari 14 1'13.421 1.789
20 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 22 1'13.625 1.993
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