Max Verstappen denied George Russell a clean sweep of all three practice sessions for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
But there was little to choose between the three quickest teams at the end of the final hour of running before qualifying.The Red Bull, Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari were covered by little more than a tenth of a second.
Drivers found the soft tyres were capable of producing multiple quick laps. Verstappen improved his fastest time repeatedly over a 12-lap run on softs at the end of the session, but skidded into the turn 15 run-off area during his final attempt.
His last run nosed him ahead of Russell’s Mercedes, which had set the pace for much of the session. Russell and team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was fourth-quickest, ducked back into the pits and switched to the medium compound before the session ended, while others continued to improve.
Charles Leclerc was half a second slower than Hamilton after going off at turn seven. Russell also came to a stop there during the session.
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Pierre Gasly underlined Alpine’s potential again by setting the sixth-fastest time. That put him ahead of both McLaren drivers.
The two Red Bull drivers were separated by 1.2 seconds. Isack Hadjar complained of being repeatedly stuck in traffic on his way to the ninth-fastest time. “Unfortunately I don’t control all the cars,” replied his race engineer Richard Wood.
Franco Colapinto completed the top 10. Sergio Perez put his Cadillac in 16th place but was unhappy to see Arvid Lindblad overtake him by cutting across the inside of turn 15, which he reported to the stewards. Both Racing Bulls ended the session in the bottom five places.
Aston Martin’s tough weekend continued. The team told Lance Stroll to park up after just eight laps after he clipped the wall at the inside of turn one.
Although many drivers explored the track’s run-off areas the session ran without interruption, except for a brief Virtual Safety Car period to allow marshals to move a fallen branch.
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2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix third practice result
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