Charles Leclerc leads the way on Saturday morning

Cloudy. Dry, then rain. Air +22…21С, route +29…22С

The forecast was for rain, but Saturday’s practice started on dry surfaces, allowing the teams to complete the set-up and familiarize themselves with the new Pirelli tire design – on Friday, many were complaining about the lack of grip.

Lando Norris was one of the first to leave, but stopped on command from the pits – the mechanics forgot to remove one of the cooling fans. To solve the problem, the mechanic had to run behind the white line, after which Lando drove on. The stewards will review this incident after the session. Charles Leclerc missed all of the second practice session and rushed to track in an attempt to make up for lost time from the day before.

A cloud approached the circuit, lightning flashed, but the track remained dry. The weather forecast for Sunday promises no rain, everyone tried to ride on a dry track as much as possible. Only the Alfa Romeo drivers left the pits late.

There were some minor incidents. Leclerc went off the track in turn 3 with no consequences for the car. Zhou had technical problems, after two laps he returned to the pits and did not leave.

After 25 minutes it started to rain and the riders returned to the pits – only Leclerc, the leader in the session, decided to stay on track on slicks, but he soon turned into the pit lane.

The weather forecast promises a rain qualification, after a short break the riders set off again, already on intermediate tyres. The rain turned out to be brief, the track was almost not wet, then the weather set in, forcing the riders to switch from intermediate tires to slicks and back, but many preferred to sit outside in the pits.

In the final minutes, the riders drove a few laps on intermediate tyres, but this did not affect the results. Leclerc deployed without consequences for the car.

The fastest time was set by Charles Leclerc, with a lap time of 1:27.419 on the still dry track.

Results of the third session