Türkiye – EL3: Gasly shines in the wet, Hamilton preserves himself

The sun and good driving conditions of Friday gave way this Saturday morning to rain and a wet track for the last free practice sessions before qualifying. Although the majority of drivers opted for wet tires at the first start signal, it was not until the second part of the session that the times improved.

In this game, it's Pierre Gasly who stood out with the absolute best time in these EL3s. After putting on the intermediates for his second stint, the Normand put together a series of fast laps to climb to the top of the timesheet. With the first two sectors in purple during his last real attempt, he took first place with a time of 1’30”447.

On the line, the Habs were ahead of the duo Red Bull with Max Verstappen in 2nd position (+0“164) and Sergio Pérez in 3rd (+0“237). Equipped with a new engine, the one incorporating the latest developments brought by the Team Ferrari, Carlos Sainz ranked 4th just ahead of his garage teammate, Charles Leclerc. The first finished 8 tenths behind Pierre Gasly while the second was more than a second behind.

Max "l'artiste" Verstappen 🖼#TurkishGP 🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/FetwSyt6OH

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) October 9, 2021

At Mercedes, this final session was relatively calm. While Valtteri Bottas was satisfied with a simple 9th time more than 1″5 behind the leader, Lewis Hamilton left these EL3s to concentrate on qualifying this afternoon. The Englishman only completed 5 short laps and spent the last 20 minutes of these tests outside his car while his team worked on it for an 18th time at the finish with more than 3 seconds difference with Pierre Gasly.

Trapped by rain and deprived of victory a fortnight ago in Russia, Lando Norris this time listened to the instructions from the pit wall, putting on intermediate tires. Without doing too much before the most important moment of the day, the Briton finished in 15th place just behind his teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Also note that the session was marked by the red flag caused by George Russell just over half an hour from the checkered flag. The pilot Williams lost control of his FW43B entering the 2nd turn and ended his race in the gravel trap without any real damage, preventing him from setting any time.

"I'm beached, engine off" says George Russell

He is off at Turn 2, after spinning as soon as he gets onto the power. The session is currently red flagged#TurkishGP 🇹🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/0o7DBpGKoY

- Formula 1 (@ F1) October 9, 2021

Upset by the track conditions, the ranking should be very different during qualifying this Saturday afternoon where the sun could appear for the first time of the day. Tune in at 14:00 p.m. on AUTOhebdo to follow them in live text!