F1 Singapore GP Live Commentary and Updates – FP3
Saturday's final practice for the 18th round of the 2024 Formula 1 season
F1 completes its latest double-header with a now traditional trip to Singapore, as the season heads towards its crunch phase.
By: Ewan Gale
That brings an end to FP3 coverage, thank you very much for joining!
Read the full report on the session here.
Until qualifying, it's goodbye from us!
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Lionel Ng / Motorsport Images
That has set up an intriguing qualifying - perhaps not for pole, but at least for what the order behind will look like.
Will there be rain like after FP2 last night and will a lizard conspire to hinder progress?
Race control has noted Perez for impeding Norris, but should he be investigated and then punished, it won't affect his qualifying prospects.
Picking up on Williams, it looks like the team is comfortably at the head of the midfield this weekend, crucially with both cars.
Colapinto is seriously impressing during his end-of-year cameo.
The winners of that hour seem to be Norris, Russell and Williams.
Perez, Hamilton and Ferrari are the losers, you have to say.
Most drivers are still on track as they await the chance to practice starts on the grid.
That's FP3 done - Norris will be hoping for a repeat performance in qualifying later.
Leclerc has made some small tweaks for a final run and while he will be slower on used tyres, he can at least see if the changes were worth it.
It looked like a front wing flap adjustment as well as a tyre pressure change.
A big moment for Verstappen on his latest lap as he surfs across the T7 exit kerb. That will be a floor check when he returns to the garage.
Leclerc: "I just have no grip."
How quickly a mood can change!
Five minutes to go and Perez is out of sync with his quali sim. It doesn't look like an amazing lap and that's shown as he goes 15th.
That's right, 15th. There were no mistakes either. That's just pace - 1.7s down on P1.
Here comes Leclerc - only fifth, behind Verstappen and 0.913s down on Norris.
McLaren has the upper hand.
Hamilton has tried a double cooldown before another attempt on softs but he is half a second down in S1.
Albon, meanwhile, has leapt back ahead of Colapinto and into P7.
For the second time today, Russell has to go down an escape road - this time at T7.
No harm done though and he gets back going.
Sainz's car doesn't looked that hooked up and it shows as he is three-tenths down in sector one alone. Another five-tenths are bled in the mid-sector.
There has to be fuel on board, surely? He is 1.1s down in P5.
Now the Ferrari gets on track with softs, so let's see where Leclerc and Sainz measure up.
And he goes fastest! A 1m29.646s. That's 1.3s faster than pole last year and a new lap record.
Wow.
That puts four-tenths between him and the rest of those to have run the softs.
Colapinto has a big moment at the final corner but still gets ahead of team-mate Albon.
Meanwhile, Norris is purple in the first two sectors.
Verstappen has been struggling on his lap and the time shows that. He's down by four-tenths to Russell.
Norris is now on his lap though...
Replays show Piastri was oh so close to losing his McLaren over the T7 exit kerb. A proper yikes moment.
Everyone has their own way of watching the action here. The recovery forklift truck driver is keeping an eye on FP3 by watching on his phone.
Perez is still on medium tyres so won't set anything too exciting as he crosses the line, but Verstappen is out of the pits on a set of red-walled softs.
Albon is next and goes a second down in second.
Piastri gets within three-tenths behind Russell, as Hamilton bumps Albon down again, though is seven-tenths down on his team-mate.
It's shaping to be a huge lap for the Mercedes driver - a 1m30.125s!
A strong benchmark that.
The softs are now on for those emerging from the pits. Russell will be the first to set a time out of the top four teams.
There's a bit of a lull as teams pit for what will be the final chance to make tweaks that can be tested before qualifying.
Colapinto has launched into seventh for Williams, albeit on softs. That's still a strong effort though.
Twenty-five minutes to go in the session and we are still yet to have a switch to softs - unless you are called Colapinto, Bottas or Zhou.
The later teams leave it, the more representative conditions will be.
Russell's latest lap comes to an abrupt end with a trip into the run-off at T14. At least it wasn't a crash like at the end of FP2.
The pitlane has just become incredibly busy as it also gets noticeably more humid. The skies are just beginning to cloud over a little bit. Could we have rain later? It absolutely hosed it down last night.
Verstappen ran wide at T7 and lost time over the kerb as Hamilton pops ahead of Russell and into fourth.
Mercedes has definitely found performance overnight.
Still on the medium tyres, Leclerc goes quicker than Verstappen and Norris to go fastest.
We are well into the 1m31s now and still yet to get a true indication of soft tyres.