Lando Norris returned to the top of the times as practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix came to an end.
The McLaren driver was quickest in yesterday’s opening practice session then suffered a setback when he crashed in the second. However he produced a clean, error-free run to head the final hour of running with a time of 1’41.223.
His team mate, championship leader Oscar Piastri, had a tougher time for much of the session, as he made a series of mistakes around the track where he won last year. He eventually improved to take the third-fastest time, Max Verstappen pipping him to second place by three hundredths of a second.
Charles Leclerc also flirted with the barriers in his Ferrari which compromised his final lap time, leaving the pole-winner of the last four years only 10th overall. His team mate Lewis Hamilton had a smoother final run and ended up within a few hundredths of Verstappen and Piastri.
The Mercedes pair seemed less comfortable, particularly George Russell, who complained about his car’s balance as he set the sixth-fastest time behind his team mate.
Oliver Bearman showed promising pace in his Haas on both hard and soft tyres, lapping within two-thousandths of a second of Alexander Albon’s Williams. Liam Lawson had a 360-degree spin at the exit of turn 16 in his Racing Bulls, but took the ninth-fastest time ahead of Leclerc at the end of the session.
Despite tricky, windy conditions, no one made serious contact with any of the barriers. Several drivers had to extract themselves from escape roads, however, and Franco Colapinto is under investigation for potentially failing to slow for a yellow flag.
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2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix third practice result
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