Azerbaijan GP - Free Practice 3Norris is carried by the wind of Baku

The Baku circuit, with its differences, has quite a few similarities to Monaco when it comes to gaining confidence. The more daring one is in trimming the walls, the faster they will go, and this Free Practice 3 was the last opportunity to find the limit.

But a special guest wanted to join the party: the wind. With gusts exceeding 20 km/h, which can increase to between 50 and 90 km/h, adapting to this circumstance was an added challenge.

The initial timed laps didn't help either, being slower than yesterday and not allowing for conclusions in the early moments. In fact, the fastest was Ollie Bearman with the hard tire.

A favorite circuit for Leclerc

If there is a track on this calendar that suits Charles Leclerc particularly well, it is Baku. At least for a lap, as he has achieved up to four consecutive poles, but has not converted any into victory. The Monegasque set the pace with the soft tire near the midpoint of the session, a session that once again demonstrated the difficulty of the C6 tire, the softest in Pirelli's range at this circuit.

Although Leclerc faced tough competition from his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who was already the fastest in Free Practice 2 yesterday. Nevertheless, the Monegasque managed to surpass the Brit again, taking the lead shortly after.

What was most striking was the disparity of drivers in the top positions - five different teams - and tires. Especially the performance of Bearman with the hard tire, as he was fourth half a second behind Leclerc. Sainz was just behind, on the soft tire, and to find Fernando Alonso, one had to go down to 15th place, just ahead of the Alpines, the Saubers, and his teammate Lance Stroll. This was not going to be Aston Martin's weekend.

Little margin for error

The track continued to offer limit moments for the drivers. Hamilton brushed the walls, but Leclerc even touched them, asking for the suspension of his SF-23 to be checked almost at the same time that Max Verstappen took the best time from him.

The Williams continued with their good momentum from Friday with Alex Albon in second place, with a time that could not be surpassed by George Russell or Andrea Kimi Antonelli, but yes, and very easily, by Lando Norris, who took the lead with a 1:41.2. Sainz, on the other hand, did not have a completely clean lap and had to settle for tenth place, 1.2 seconds behind Norris and half a second behind Albon.

The last minutes were a festival of yellow flags, as the wind increased and caused havoc with multiple off-track incidents, like those of Alex Albon and Oscar Piastri. The Australian could not improve his teammate's time, nor could Max Verstappen, who made a slight error brushing the wall.

Alonso managed to polish his result a bit with a final fourteenth position, but that also does not invite optimism, 1.3 seconds behind Norris's time, who remained the fastest as Piastri could not surpass him either in the second attempt.

With the wind increasing, the qualifying will be decided by the slightest error made, or not, by the main contenders for pole. Starting at 14:00, the fight for that preferred position on the grid.

Fotos: McLaren / Ferrari