Pérez overtakes Leclerc and puts Red Bull in the lead in TL3 of the Azerbaijan GP

The third and final free practice session for the Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP on Saturday morning was delayed by 15 minutes due to a Formula 2 accident, and when it finally started, it was drowsy. It took a while before more people took the track for the final preparation for qualifying later in the day. When it did warm up, Sergio Pérez showed strength and finished in the lead.

In reality, it never really warmed up. The last free practice was lukewarm, which is understandable given the short time until qualifying. Even an average car problem would make drivers see their participation in grid definition at risk, something that didn't happen for anyone, in the end.

Pérez goes into qualifying with an advantage after beating Charles Leclerc's time in the last ten minutes. The Ferrari driver had been fastest for most of the day, but ended up 0s070 seconds behind.

Max Verstappen followed, coming in third and completing a replay of Monaco, where he was slower than Pérez in all activities. Carlos Sainz was fourth, while Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, George Russell, Esteban Ocon, and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top-10. Lewis Hamilton was, as in yesterday's TL2, 12th.

GRANDE PRÊMIO follows all Formula 1 activities LIVE and IN REAL TIME. Later today, qualifying is scheduled to start at 11:15am [Brasilia time, GMT-3]. On Sunday, the schedule indicates a start at 8am.

Check out TL3:

Saturday's tight schedule for the Azerbaijan GP on the streets of Baku made the start of the activity a victim. Because of an accident involving Calan Williams and Cem Bölükbasi on the last lap of the Formula 2 sprint race, which ended 30 minutes before the scheduled start of TL3, the organizers needed time to repair a damaged barrier and thus delayed the start of the session by 15 minutes.

More importantly, since the FIA sports regulations require at least two hours of difference between TL3 and qualifying, the grid setup was also delayed, as it was scheduled to start at 11:00 am [Brasília, GMT-3].

When the light went on, Lance Stroll set off immediately to take the track ahead of the rest. Only Aston Martin and Haas were interested in sending their cars. At Red Bull, Max Verstappen walked around the garage out of the cockpit and without any urgency to join in the fun.

The main tire menu choice was soft, while Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda were testing medium for McLaren and hard for AlphaTauri, respectively. Even so, and as Mercedes also got on track, the first timed lap came after more than ten minutes: Charles Leclerc did 1mi45s260.

After that, at about 15 minutes, more people started to set fast laps. Then, with everyone on the track, things started to heat up. Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen also got on track, and the Mexican moved up to the front. Pierre Gasly took advantage of a big vacuum by Lando Norris and painted himself in the top four.

Although laps were falling, little of substance was happening. Leclerc returned to the lead with 1min43s514 shortly after Sainz had overtaken Perez. The Mexican, however, came good to climb back into second place.

After 30 minutes, Leclerc was leading and had Pérez, Sainz, Verstappen, Gasly, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Ricciardo, and Norris in the top-10.

After a carnival of fast laps that even had Verstappen coming in second, the track was empty again. Only Nicholas Latifi was running, but luckily Fernando Alonso came next and brought both Haas and Russell in tow. A piece of the bodywork of the two-time champion's Alpine came loose from the car and stuck out in the middle of the track. Luckily it was not big.

A yellow flag came out next, when Valtteri Bottas went off the track in turn three. Nothing serious, though.

A lot of people on the track in the last ten minutes, but nothing too drastic with respect to the timed times until six minutes to go. Then, yes, Pérez did 1min43s170 and jumped to the top.

Hamilton asked engineer Peter Bonnington on the Mercedes radio if he had changed the engine configuration for the final minutes. Bonnington nodded: he had to protect the mileage of the power unit, according to the team. In an attempt to get back to the front, Leclerc locked up his tires at turn 15 and barely made the corner.

Nothing would change in the end. Lead by Pérez, who goes into qualifying as the fastest of the weekend so far.

F1 2022, Azerbaijan GP, Baku, TL3: