Piastri is faster than the rest in the final practice session of the weekend

IMAGE: United Autosports

Oscar Piastri pips Norris and Leclerc to P1 and goes fastest in FP3 in Bahrain.

The Australian set a lap time of 1:31.646 and was over half a second quicker than his teammate Lando Norris - further displaying Mclaren's continuing excellent form this season.

Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari in third - a great performance for the Prancing Horses who brought new major upgrades to this weekend's race.

Temperatures soared to 33 degrees during today's FP3 and Oliver Bearman made comments over the radio about the difference in track conditions in the day sessions compared to night sessions. 

Max Verstappen's tough weekend seemed to carry on today as he finished P8. The Dutchman struggled in his opening laps, pulling out of his flying laps and going back to the garage to make changes to the set up of his car. 

His Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who is still trying to get to grips with the RB21 placed his car in P20. His time was 3 seconds off the leader and highlights the difficulty of Red Bull's weekend. 

The Virtual Safety Car made a brief appearance in today's session when Nico Hulkenberg brought the yellow flags as he was forced to stop his Kick Sauber at Turn 8 after it went into anti-stall. 

The unusual incidents of the weekend didn't stop at Alonso's steering wheel problems yesterday, as this afternoon saw Charles Leclerc lose his wing mirror during the session.

It was a solid performance from the Mercedes team today, despite George Russells complaints about the lack of grip. He had a small mishap when he spun at Turn 10 which brought out the yellow flags for a few seconds and Russell said that, "I'd go so far as saying, that's the least amount of grip I've ever had in an F1 car" on his way back to the pits. 

As for Kimi Antonelli, he placed just behind his Mercedes counterpart - impressing again with his speed and consistency that has shone since he stepped into an F1 car.

Alpine looked to have taken step forwards in the opening two practice sessions and FP3 was no different. Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan finished P6 and P12 respectively and the French team will be looking to push going into qualifying to give themselves the best chance at their first points finish of the season. 

Further down the field: Ocon took P11 for Haas, followed by Jack Doohan in P12. Then came Liam Lawson in P13 and Fernando Alonso slotted his Aston Martin into P14. P15 went to Alex Albon who was followed by Oliver Bearman in P16 after struggling in the conditions. P17 was Lance Stroll's and P18 was taken by Gabriel Bortoleto. Nico Hulkenberg was left in P19 after failing to make it back out on track after his incident and Yuki Tsunoda finished the standings in P20.

Piastri's dominant lap is something he will be looking to replicate in qualifying which will take place at 5pm UK time and 7pm local time. Be sure to tune in you don't want to miss this!

Top 10 in Free Practice 3
1. Oscar Piastri (1:31.646)
2. Lando Norris (1:32.314)
3. Charles Leclerc (1:32.480)
4. George Russell (1:32.827)
5. Kimi Antonelli (1:32.916)
6. Pierre Gasly (1:32.974)
7. Isack Hadjar (1:33.023)
8. Max Vertsappen (1:33.027)
9. Carlos Sainz (1:33.092)
10. Lewis Hamilton (1:33.111)

Katie Shepherd 
Writer - F1 Journal