Things seemed to be going more smoothly for Ferrari as the number of cars on track increased and Leclerc set the first benchmark time of 1m 15.184s, but there would be plenty of track evolution to come.
With everyone running on the red-walled soft tyres, times continued to tumble in the opening runs.
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were the next to set a new standard as they inched closer to yesterday’s fastest laps and began to challenge the Scuderia, delivering more performance after Mercedes’ lacklustre Friday.
Approaching the halfway mark, the yellow flags were briefly waved as Franco Colapinto spun at the hairpin and clipped the barrier with the rear of his Alpine, but he was able to get going again and return to the pits.
Alex Albon also made an error that forced him to take a short trip down the escape road at Sainte Devote before the action quietened down, with the majority going back to the garages to look over their first Qualifying simulation runs.
Things seemed to be going more smoothly for Ferrari as the number of cars on track increased and Leclerc set the first benchmark time of 1m 15.184s, but there would be plenty of track evolution to come.
That was soon demonstrated by Hamilton, who broke into the 1m 14s bracket to beat the Monegasque driver’s time by seven tenths before Norris – seeking to recover the time he lost in second practice – shot to the top of the timesheet by just 0.015s.
With everyone running on the red-walled soft tyres, times continued to tumble in the opening runs. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were the next to set a new standard as they inched closer to yesterday’s fastest laps and began to challenge the Scuderia, delivering more performance after Mercedes’ lacklustre Friday.
Approaching the halfway mark, the yellow flags were briefly waved as Franco Colapinto spun at the hairpin and clipped the barrier with the rear of his Alpine, but he was able to get going again and return to the pits.
Alex Albon also made an error that forced him to take a short trip down the escape road at Sainte Devote before the action quietened down, with the majority going back to the garages to look over their first Qualifying simulation runs.
