It was a very damp day in Montreal and steady drizzle had been falling most of the day ahead of the final free practice session for the 2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix at the 4.361-kilometre Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal. But crucially it had been nowhere near as heavy as the downpour which hit the track in the final minutes of Practice Two last night.
The air temperature was just 14C and track temperature of 17C – yesterday it was 25C and 28C respectively. It was therefore interesting to see which teams would be able to perform best in the cooler temperatures. With rain expected to hang around for qualifying, we saw plenty of action in this session despite the weather.
The light at the end of the pit lane went green and the final hour of practice was under way. Just two cars on track to begin with, and it wa Haas duo Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen. It was wet tyres all round for the eight cars out on track in the first ten minutes – which included both Haas and Aston Martin drivers, George Russell and Esteban Ocon. George Russell doesn’t seem to be completely happy with the balance of his Mercedes. A 1:32.217 was the early time to beat from Fernando Alonso as Alex Albon cut the final chicane. Lots of spray in the final sector, which appeared to be the wettest part of the track.
Fernando Alonso was then not to happy with Yuki Tsunoda being in his way at the hairpin. Esteban Ocon had a great record in the wet and he showed off his skill by going fastest with a 1:31.428. Ocon was then told by his engineer “more rain in nine minutes”… Yuki Tsunoda spun at Turn Three but he kept his car out of the wall. Ended up being a nice pirouette from the AlphaTauri driver.
Aston Martin decided the track was dry enough for intermediate tyres. Fernando Alonso slid his way around the track on them and went eighth. Several others, including the Ferrari cars, followed suit. The times were tumbling and Valtteri Bottas was the latest driver to go quickest, with Max Verstappen in second. The drivers were gaining more and more confidence with every lap.
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With 40 minutes until the end of the third free practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz went 0.272s faster than Fernando Alonso, but Charles Leclerc beat both lap times by over half a second. Nico Hulkenberg briefly went fastest, but Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz made it a one-two for Ferrari: the Maranello team already looked strong in the dry yesterday and were continuing that form today in the wet weather.
Carlos Sainz’s afternoon took a turn to the worse when he hit the wall and we had a red flag. We finally saw a replay of the incident and it wa a pretty big shunt: the Spaniard got on the white line at the first corner and lost control, spinning and hitting the barrier side on. Thankfully he was out the car and appeared to be ok, but he had to take a trip to the medical centre after that. Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok said: “He just came across the line to go second fastest. He touches the paint (white line). I wonder about the gearbox. The rear wing is square on so that would have absorbed a lot of the impact. Ferrari will be concerned about that.” Danica Patrick added: “That’s the thing about wet conditions – the track can be lethal.”
Lewis Hamilton also got caught out at Turn 1, but it was nowhere near as dramatic as Carlos Sainz’s incident. The Mercedes man regained control but was forced to go over that lush grass to get back on track. It didn’t sound like it’s going to get any easier, with the intensity of the rain expected to increase over the final minutes.
With 14 minutes to go in FP3 we had back-to-back new fastest laps from Max Verstappen. Even though he, and everyone else, were on the intermediate tyres that were used before the red flag, the Dutchman was still getting faster.
Not too many improvements as the intermediate tyres were wearing out. But, Fernando Alonso went third and Bottas jumpeded into fifth. Max Verstappen went faster yet again but was just 0.291s faster than Charles Leclerc in second place. Fernando Alonso also improved his time to go third but was 1.388s behind Verstappen. Then came Kevin Magnussen, Carlos Sainz (who was out), Lance Stroll, Yuki Tsunoda, Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg and Oscar Piastri.
That rain that we were hearing was on its way finally arrived: it was chucking it down and it appeared unlikely we would see any further improvement on Max Verstappen’s leading time in the final seven minutes. Valtteri Bottas’ right mirror was damaged and he was holding it with his hand while driving, so it didn’t fall off.
All the drivers were back in the pit lane as the rain was much heavier, so there is not much to gain from being out there in the final moments of FP3.
Sky Sports F1’s Danica Patrick explained: “You just can’t see. There’s so much spray and makes it really challenging. That’s going to be key in the first part of Qualifying, trying to find a gap so you can see.”
That was it, no cars went out on track in the final few minutes due to the heavy rain. Max Verstappen ended up fastest by 0.291s from Charles Leclerc. Fernando Alonso was third, with Kevin Magnussen fourth and Carlos Sainz, who crashed at the first corner, in fifth.
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