2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Free Practice 3 results (Imola)
Oscar Piastri led a McLaren 1-2 in the third practice session at Imola.
Here are the full results from the third and final practice session at Imola for the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
McLaren finished off the practice sessions at Imola with an impressive 1-2 display in third practice at Imola, with Oscar Piastri topping the times ahead of Lando Norris.
Oscar Piastri takes top spot as red flags disrupt practice
All eyes were on Red Bull at the start of the third practice session, following the difficult Friday endured by Max Verstappen as the Dutch driver struggled for grip and balance.
With Ferrari setting the pace up front in the opening half of FP3, as Carlos Sainz led Charles Leclerc by just 0.020 seconds on the softs, Verstappen slotted into third on the mediums and some three-tenths of a second behind the leading duo – much to the enjoyment of the Tifosi crammed into the stands at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
With just over 30 minutes left in the session, Fernando Alonso brought out the red flags as he lost the rear of his Aston Martin exiting Rivazza. The uncharacteristic error saw him slide off backward into the barriers to destroy the left-rear corner of his car – Aston Martin now faces a race against time to prepare his car for qualifying.
The corner proved tricky throughout the session, with a tailwind possibly being to blame as Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri each found the gravel due to twitches while negotiating their way through Rivazza.
The red flags were thrown again with just a few minutes left in the session, just after Oscar Piastri went quickest by half a second on his qualifying simulation – only for the rest of the leading drivers to lose their best chance.
Sergio Perez made a mistake at Variante Alta to end up with his Red Bull in the barriers, causing the stoppage, with the session resuming with just two minutes to go.
This resulted in a frantic dash from the pitlane to the start/finish line as the drivers wanted to get in their qualifying simulations, with Norris climbing the order to go second and make it a McLaren 1-2 as he took the flag.
With lots of drivers tripping over each other, including a scary moment as Kevin Magnussen had to take to the grass in his Haas to avoid two slow RB cars, there were no other lap time improvements in the final flurry of action.
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Third Practice (FP3) Results – 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
- Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:15.529
- Lando Norris McLaren +0.300
- Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.538
- Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.558
- George Russell Mercedes +0.566
- Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.837
- Alex Albon Williams +0.941
- Esteban Ocon Alpine +0.952
- Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.014
- Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1.018
- Daniel Ricciardo RB +1.031
- Sergio Perez Red Bull +1.102
- Yuki Tsunoda RB +1.139
- Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1.166
- Logan Sargeant Williams +1.265
- Kevin Magnussen Haas +1.394
- Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +1.431
- Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1.810
- Pierre Gasly Alpine +1.832
- Zhou Guanyu Sauber +2.362
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