2023 F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix – Free Practice 3 results

Jamie Woodhouse 18 Nov 2023 5:36 AM

The Las Vegas Sphere with McLaren cars projected on it.

The Sphere was first opened in September.

Mercedes’ George Russell set the pace in FP3, with a late incident for Alex Albon leaving plenty of question marks for Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying.

There was plenty of movement in the top positions on the timings, Russell in P1 as Max Verstappen looked to offer a response, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz also in need of a push on the softs.

Alex Albon whacking the wall though brought FP3 to an end four minutes early.

Ferrari picked up where they left off in the early stages of FP3, controlling the top two with Leclerc and Sainz trading P1 as the track ramped up.

Leclerc also had a Magnussen battle on the side, Magnussen bailing after they went side-by-side into the final corner and later through the chicane, neither exchange going down well at Haas.

It was a slow start to the session for Verstappen on the soft rubber, but his team-mate Sergio Perez going a second faster seemed to wake him up, as the three-time World Champion soon delivered a 1:34.653 to move to the top of the timings.

George Russell struck with 15 minutes of the session to go, going 0.068s up on Verstappen, but as the track ramped up and the order around the top shifted, Albon triggered an early end to the session, a whack of the wall causing his rear-left tyre to fall off as the stricken Williams drew out the red flags.

Russell, Piastri and Williams’ Logan Sargeant then was the surprise top three.

FP3 times

1 George RUSSELL Mercedes 1:34.093
2 Oscar PIASTRI McLaren +0.398
3 Logan SARGEANT Williams +0.552
4 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing +0.560
5 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +0.613
6 Alexander ALBON Williams 1:34.726
7 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +0.695
8 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +0.760
9 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +0.815
10 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas F1 Team +0.974
11 Lando NORRIS McLaren +0.996
12 Nico HULKENBERG Haas F1 Team +1.019
13 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +1.160
14 Esteban OCON Alpine +1.204
15 Guanyu ZHOU Alfa Romeo +1.788
16 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +1.815
17 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +1.846
18 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +1.994
19 Pierre GASLY Alpine +2.392
20 Daniel RICCIARDO AlphaTauri +3.685