Third Free Practice Results 2021 Turkish F1 GP

Event: Turkish F1 Grand Prix
Track: Istanbul Park Circuit

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (33) Red Bull Racing RB16B Honda during final practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Turkey

Weather: rain/dry 16.8°C
Tarmac: wet 21.7°C
Humidity: 93.8%
Wind: 1.4 m/s E
Pressure: 1004.5 bar

The expected rain was falling today and completely changed the track conditions for the third and final practice before qualifying this afternoon. The first 8 minutes no car went out.

Pierre Gasly was the first to check out the track in the AlphaTauri on full wets, his teammate Yuki Tsuonda followed his example. Gasley's first lap time was a 1:39.988 min.

After 15 minutes the rain had stopped at some parts of the track.and the sun was coming out. There still was a lot of standing water and only half the amount of cars were lapping the Istanbul Park circuit.

With 42 minutes to go McLaren driver Lando Norris was the first who went in the pits to try out the faster intermediate tyres. At this time Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz was quickest with a 1:36.299 min on full wet tyres. Norris was second fastest after 2 laps and 0.321 sec. slower than Sainz.

Turn 11 was still very wet. Gasly and Mazepin who also switched to intermediate tyres had a spin there. A few moments later the session got red flagged when Williams driver George Russell spun of in turn 2 on intermediate tyres.

With half an hour to go the track was clear again. Max Verstappen now also went out for the first time and set the fastest lap right away with a 1:32.464, being 0.651 sec faster than Bottas on P2. On the cool down lap the Dutchman made a nice 360 spin in turn 9. He asked his team on the radio what they wanted him to do. The team said they wanted him to push.

With 15 minutes to go Lewis Hamilton's lap time was still much slower in the Mercedes than his F1 title rival with a 1:33.636 min on P18. He was over 2.5 sec. slower than the Red Bull driver in these wet conditions and only had driven 5 laps and even had stepped out of the car.

Gasly now was quickest with a 1:30.447, Sergio Perez was 2nd on +0.2s, Verstappen was third (+0.6s), Sainz on P4 (+1s) and Leclerc on P5 (+1s).

In the end Hamilton didn't got out anymore, while the top 3 are all Honda powered cars. The track did dry out a lot but not enough to switch to slicks.

Last year Max Verstappen was quickest in FP3. The Red Bull driver then clocked a 1:48.485 min.

FP3 Times Table 2021 Turkish GP

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