EL3 – Bottas continues, Verstappen between the Mercedes

This Saturday took place the last session before qualifying, scheduled for later in the day. And once again Valtteri Bottas the debates.

The fastest man of the day on Friday with the best times during the two practice sessions, the Finn confirmed his good form. The pilot Mercedes clocked a time of 1'16"530, improving his two benchmarks from the day before.

But this Saturday, the competition got closer. Main threat of the Silver Arrows, Max Verstappen came between the two Mercedes drivers. The strong man of Red Bull finished the session just 17 thousandths behind the Finn, preventing the German team from achieving a double. Indeed, Lewis Hamilton ranked third in EL3, 0 from the lead. The battle for pole promises.

Behind, very encouraging session for Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri). Riding the wave of his victory at Monza seven days ago, the Norman was at the end of testing in 5th position ahead of Sergio Pérez (Racing Point) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).

Seventh, the Monegasque sees the possibility of joining the fight for a place in Q3 while his teammate Sebastian Vettel still suffers aboard the SF1000. In difficulty, the German is only in 18th position. He only advances Lando Norris (McLaren) and George Russell (William), who was unable to take part in the session due to problems with his car.

On the tricolor side, Romain Grosjean performed well in EL3. After a shortened Friday day, the pilot Haas was able to ride and achieved the 10th best time in practice, one place ahead Esteban Ocon (Renault) who dominated his partner Daniel Ricciardo, only 17th. The qualifications do not look easy for the diamond firm.

 FP3 Classification

Less than a tenth of a second between the top three #TuscanGP  #F1 pic.twitter.com/me5naIgG74

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2020

Meet at 15 p.m. on the AUTOhebdo website to follow the qualifications in live text.