Charles Leclerc claimed a hat trick of fastest laps across the three practice sessions in Monaco as he edged out his rivals in FP3 once again, but it was disaster for the other side of the Ferrari garage as Lewis Hamilton brought out the red flags late on.
Hometown hero Leclerc got the better of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris by almost three-tenths as he clocked the fastest lap of the weekend so far of 1m 10.953s.
FP3: Leclerc completes Monaco practice clean sweep as Ferrari team mate Hamilton brings out red flags
But it was far from straightforward as competition was fierce between Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren for much of the session, with Verstappen finding himself top of the timesheets after a strong effort on the medium tyres around the halfway point.
It seemed that there would be minimal improvements on the field’s final runs ahead of Qualifying, before Leclerc successfully dialled in his soft tyres and became the driver to beat.
His team mate Hamilton found the wall at Massenet with just a few minutes remaining, sending his front right tyre rolling across the circuit as the session was prematurely brought to a close. His earlier lap time earned him P5 just behind Oscar Piastri, with Alex Albon, Liam Lawson, Carlos Sainz and Yuki Tsunoda rounding out the top 10.
Hit go on the video player above to watch the highlights from FP3 in Monaco.
.webp?ssl=1 "Graeme Lowdon on why Zhou Guanyu ‘ticked all of the boxes’ as a reserve for Cadillac")
.webp?ssl=1 "How do Formula 1 drivers recharge during the winter break?")
