FP3: Hamilton fastest before qualifying, Zhou crashed the car again

Lewis Hamilton turned out to be the fastest driver in the third practice session before the Canadian Grand Prix. Zhou Guanyu crashed his car for the second time this weekend.

FP3 in brief:

– Zo destroyed the car again,
– Many drivers complained about the brakes and their grip,
– Albon and Verstappen removed the Wall of Champions,
– Hamilton is the fastest.

The third practice session on the Gilles Villeneuve track began in the best weather yet. The surface was dry and the sky indicated no impending cloudburst.

Immediately, the following left the garage: Max Verstappen, who lost a lot of time yesterday due to an early failure in the ERS system in the second free practice. Normally, drivers wouldn’t want to go into lap three so quickly, but the change in conditions meant that everyone really wanted to do it as quickly as possible and experience good grip.

Unfortunately, the red flag was raised after only a few minutes. The culprit, as in FP1, was Zhou Guanyu, who lost control of the car at Turn 1 and crashed into the barrier at the outside edge of T2. The Chinese man was not harmed because it was not a major accident, but his journey was already over.

The break was very short and when the clock showed less than 50 minutes to go, the marshals were able to raise the green flags again.

After the first 30 minutes, the timesheet leader was Logan Sargeant, who achieved a result of 1:14.355 on the soft tyres, ahead of Fernando Alonso (1:14.445) and Daniel Ricciardo (1:14.780). The group was closed by Sergio Perez (1:18.037) and Zhou (1:18.656).

The attention of the stewards was drawn to Valtteri Bottas, whose driving into Turn 13 was initially deemed too slow. Ultimately, no further steps were taken in this regard.

In the second part of the time trials, more and more racers decided to test their speed on the red tires, in preparation for qualifying.

The first competitor who decided to test the limits of the track in the Wall of Champions was Alex Albon, and fortunately the race ended without any damage. Max Verstappen also had a tough time in this department.

In the end, it was Lewis Hamilton (1:12.549) who had the best time in the third session, followed by the aforementioned Verstappen (1:12.923) and George Russell (1:12.957). The seven-time world champion’s advantage is surprisingly large, and his circle was formed very early. Max’s result does not reflect the complaints of Red Bull drivers. The Dutchman himself said, among other things: about jumping.

The balance of power, as the table shows, is unknown, especially due to slightly different programs and many minor problems in many cars. The front is missing, among other things: the Ferrari, which did not have a perfect session either. Leclerc even commented that he was too slow.

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