FP3: Qualifying is already in the air in Jeddah. Leclerc steals the first half from Verstappen by just 33 thousandths!

Charles Leclerc does the en plein, who also takes the fastest time in this last session. After some siege attempts, the Monegasque finds the perfect lap and with 30 seconds left in the session he leaves Verstappen behind, setting a time of 1'29”735. Behind him and Verstappen are Perez, Sainz, Bottas, Ocon, Gasly, Magnussen, Alonso and Tsunoda. Eleventh Hamilton.

Having put aside the controversies, attention now returns to the track and to the signs that can be seen in this last session of Free Practice which precedes the Qualifying in Jeddah.

We're coming from a weekend start that sees Ferrari still at the top of the standings after the first two qualifying sessions. Yesterday the Maranello team concentrated on the flying lap and had to sacrifice the reference on the long run in the last session. Ferrari, although they have already brought a similar program to Bahrain, testing race pace only in the last session, do not have the same amount of data in Jeddah, as there have been no tests on this street circuit. However, this comes as a direct consequence of a double episode that blocked work at Ferrari, which has already tested the first effects of an impact, albeit minimal, with the barriers with both drivers. Although the contact did not cause serious damage, it did waste time for the Ferrari drivers who were forced to interrupt their session prematurely.

Therefore, in FP3, Ferrari was the first to get out on track straight away and try a few more flying laps to then concentrate on race pace.

Red Bull, Ferrari's direct rival, although it still has 0 points in the standings, yesterday carried out a comparative study, bringing two different rear wing configurations to the cars driven by Verstappen and Perez, presenting a more relaxed one on the Mexican's car and a more charge on the RB18 of the new world champion. The "unloaded" configuration tested on Perez's RB3 was mounted on his single-seater for FP18.

The same choice also for Mercedes, which already arrived yesterday with a very unloaded solution. However, the Brackley team still suffers on the straights, and perhaps pays for the too extreme aerodynamic solution. The only one of the top teams to choose the path of the most charged solution is currently Ferrari.

FP3 cannot give us such useful data in terms of time references given the different times compared to Qualifying and the Race. However, they can give us a point of comparison with yesterday's session, and the work done by the mechanics during the night to work on the setup.

In the middle of the session, the standings see Verstappen ahead with a time well under 1:30 on the Softs, a compound with which he never set his best time yesterday. The Dutchman, who took to the track about 20 minutes behind the rest of the group, did a great lap after a less clean first attempt, being particularly skilled in the second sector. Following the Ferrari of Leclerc.

With 20 minutes to go, Gasly, after reporting problems with the semi-axle, was forced to stop at the exit of the pitlane and go back carrying his AT03 by hand. This weekend Pierre has already used the second Power Unit of the season after retiring in Bahrain. Complicated situation also for the other Honda engines. Besides Perez, after yesterday's problems Tsunoda also had to change several components on his AlphaTauri.

Sainz, meanwhile, complains that he no longer has the right front tire and for this he returns to the pits to understand how to proceed, if with a small long run. Leclerc continues. Once again the two are separated by other cars and about 5 tenths.

The line between triumph and disaster in Jeddah is very thin. For a too heavy passage on the curbs in an attempt to improve further, Verstappen had to lift his foot and return to the pits to check the bottom. Even Latifi like Ferrari yesterday gave a powerful kiss to the wall but without too many consequences.

The session was about to close with Red Bull 1-2, and close behind the Ferraris. Leclerc, in a first attempt to assault Verstappen's time with a push lap, fails to improve in the central sector. But Charles didn't fit in and with 30 seconds to go he launched himself again in a last attempt, stealing the first position from Verstappen by just 33 seconds.

Although it was only a FP3 in Jeddah, Qualifying is now in the air, which promises to be on fire and will start at 18:00.

Here are all the times from the last Free Practice session in Jeddah: