Rand Norris defeated his teammate Oscar Piastri to demonstrate a pace that predicted McLaren would go more than 0.6 seconds faster than any other team in the top spot in the final practice of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The FP3 was taking place late in the afternoon, but the truck temperature wasn’t 115 degrees Fahrenheit, but Norris was surprisingly close to last year’s pole time.
His 1M 27.489 benchmark was just 0.017s on the 0.017s than Max Verstappen’s pole best in 2024, 0.024 seconds faster than teammate Piastri.
Piastri appeared to be set to finish the final practice session at the top of the order after a final run with Fresh Soft, but Norris squeezed an additional 0.182 seconds off the used rubber and moved from the second in the impressive purple final sector first.
The Australian tried to respond to his used tires but stopped the effort after wobbles had him offline and ruined his knee.
George Russell followed in third place, but the Mercedes driver was 0.627 seconds slower than Norris. The rest of the top 10 is widened into smaller gaps.
Max Verstappen moved fourth on the last lap of the old tire, this time plagued another session, including engine braking, topped off 0.845 from the pace.
He drove Charles Leclerc away, but he fell to fifth place another 0.038 seconds ago.
Monegasque commented on the radio at the end of the session, and he felt that he was the biggest from Ferrari in these warm conditions.
Williams’ teammates Alex Albon and Carlos Anaiss were 0.9 and 1.081 seconds respectively, but they secured the team’s top midfield honors ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Guthrie, 1.136 slower than Norris’ benchmark.
Yesterday, after a slow crash on FP2 had progressed almost halfway through the session, Yuki Tsunoda’s car was repaired and the Japanese driver thanked the team when he joined the session with a 35-minute clock.
Andrea Kimmi Antoneri has completed the top ten for Mercedes.
Isack Hadjar fought the issue of water bottles on his way to the 11th ahead of a disappointed Lewis Hamilton.
Liam Lawson was 13th place after Fernando Alonso and Jacques Doohan.
Oliver Baerman was 16th place after Nico Halkenberg and Esteban Ocon.
Gabriel Boltreto missed FP2 with a fuel leak and was run in the only session in typical conditions.
The Brazilian completed the Session High 24 laps to compensate for the loss of his running, and proceeded ahead with just a walk at the bottom of the mountains.
