FP3: Verstappen comfortably leads Leclerc and Perez in final Miami practice session

Red Bull's Max Verstappen topped the timesheets in the final practice session at this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, finishing comfortably ahead of Charles Leclerc and team mate Sergio Perez in preparation for qualifying later today.

Following on from an action-packed opening day of running in Miami, it was a much quieter start to FP3, with only Esteban Ocon making his way out on to the track as the lights went green, with many drivers opting to wait for the better grippier track conditions.

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However, with the session gathering pace, most teams fitted their drivers with the soft tyres, going for some long high fuel runs, with Verstappen setting the early pace with a time of 1m 27.669s, with his nearest rival, Carlos Sainz, over four-tenths behind.

The times then began to tumble with Verstappen continuing to set the timesheets alight with a time of 1m 27.535s, just over four-tenths ahead of Leclerc, who recovered from his crash in Friday’s second practice session.

Perez, who admitted to not being comfortable out on track on Friday, was third fastest, albeit over half a second behind Verstappen, with the Mexican followed by Sainz, in fourth.

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It was a strong showing from the Alpine pair of Ocon and Pierre Gasly in fifth and sixth, respectively, ahead of the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas in seventh.

Nico Hulkenberg continued his recovery from his “unnecessary” crash in FP1 to set the eighth fastest time for Haas, ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon, with George Russell, who led FP1, rounding out the top-10 in the Mercedes.

Kevin Magnussen in the other Haas was 11th quickest, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in 12th and 14th, respectively, with the Aston Martin pair sandwiching Lewis Hamilton in 13th.

Zhou Guanyu was 15th fastest, ahead of AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda and Florida native Logan Sargeant, who was P17 for Williams.

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McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were 18th and 19th, respectively, with the latter suffering a huge moment out on track as he avoided the barrier, with the other AlphaTauri of Nyck de Vries down in 20th.

Join us again at 1600 local time ahead of what is sure to be an exciting qualifying session at the Miami International Autodrome.