2024 F1 Australian Grand Prix Free Practice 3 results

Charles Leclerc goes into qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix chasing a first pole position for 2024 after pipping Max Verstappen in final practice.

The Ferrari driver was 0.02s up on the reigning World Champion with Carlos Sainz clocking the third fastest time.

The results from the final practice hour in Melbourne

Red Bull dominated the early part of the session as Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen traded fastest lap times despite both complaining that their brakes were “not biting”.

It was all change as Carlos Sainz came through with a 1:16.791 to lead at the halfway point in the hour-long session with Charles Leclerc making it a Ferrari 1-2.

The top eight spots on the timesheet saw the teams line up in formation with Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, and Aston Martin.

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Swapping to fresh soft tyres late in the session for qualifying simulations, many of the drivers found it difficult to get pace out of Pirelli’s C5s and either went with two warm-up laps or did a cooldown between two flying laps.

The session ended with Leclerc quickest on the soft tyres, 0.020s up on Verstappen while Sainz in third, 0.077s, set his time on the mediums.

Times

1 Charles LECLERC 1:16.714 22 laps2 Max VERSTAPPEN +0.020 28 laps3 Carlos SAINZ +0.077 20 laps4 Lewis HAMILTON +0.092 20 laps5 George RUSSELL +0.172 23 laps6 Fernando ALONSO +0.283 20 laps7 Sergio PEREZ +0.300 28 laps8 Oscar PIASTRI +0.373 19 laps9 Lance STROLL +0.627 22 laps10 Lando NORRIS +0.776 22 laps11 Yuki TSUNODA +0.959 19 laps12 Valtteri BOTTAS +1.038 20 laps13 Alexander ALBON +1.045 23 laps14 Guanyu ZHOU +1.162 19 laps15 Esteban OCON +1.206 18 laps16 Nico HULKENBERG +1.227 17 laps17 Kevin MAGNUSSEN +1.247 18 laps18 Daniel RICCIARDO +1.249 20 laps19 Pierre GASLY +1.676 19 laps

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