Canada – EL3: The best time for Fernando Alonso on a wet track

Far from the conditions of the day before, it was the rain that greeted the drivers for the third Free Practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix. It was during this session that the drivers had to complete three consecutive laps, without activating DRS, at race pace and without following another car in order to allow the FIA ​​to determine “the quantitative limit to the acceptable level of vertical oscillations”, to respond to porpoising problems.

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The weather conditions and the wet track did not discourage Kevin Magnussen. The pilot Haas was the first to leave his garage, followed by Valtteri Bottas et Guanyu-Zhou (Alfa Romeo), all with rain tires. The teams gradually sent their drivers onto the track and several made mistakes, without any problems, to get used to the track conditions that they will probably find again for the qualifying session. Magnussen, Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) and Yuki tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) were the first to successively rise to the top of the timesheet. Bottas improved the Japanese's time to set the fastest lap in 1:37.909, 0.234 seconds ahead Lance stroll. Carlos Sainz established a new benchmark in 1:35.858, two seconds better than the Finnish driver.

The Alpine in good shape under these conditions

Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) took the podium, respectively 0.216 seconds and 1.023 seconds behind Sainz. Already surprising in EL2, Sebastian Vettel got the better of the Spanish driver in 1:35.821. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who will start at the back of the grid, did not sign any time, while Max Verstappen made mistakes several times, without however damaging his car.

Fernando Alonso was the first to try the intermediate tires with less than twenty minutes to go and he improved the mark of the four-time German world champion with a lap in 1:34.836. Vettel, however, regained his advantage in 1:33.891 after having also put on rubber with green stripes. The battle continued between the two men, with a new best time for Alonso in 1:33.836. The Spaniard kept this mark until the end and pocketed this third Free Practice session from which it is difficult to learn lessons in these conditions. Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel took the other two places on the podium, ahead Esteban Ocon (Alpine).

See you at 22 p.m. for the qualifying session to follow live text on AUTOhebdo.fr.