Australia’s Oscar Piastri has topped the third practice session at Imola, pipping teammate Lando Norris by 0.300s and sending a huge warning to the field ahead of qualifying on Sunday morning (AEST).
After Norris claimed his maiden win in Miami last time out – with a significantly-upgraded McLaren – Piastri made the most of his own car getting the upgrade package by topping the final practice session of the weekend, having been second on the opening day behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Piastri after Friday had been bullish about his chances, saying: “I think honestly it’s been an encouraging day for us. The pace has been good, both in the qualifying runs and the race run, so I’m feeling pretty happy.
“I felt pretty comfy with the car from the moment we got on track so yeah, [we’ll] try and find a bit more overnight and see what we can do tomorrow.”
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He added: “Hard to know; it is very tight out there. Red Bull have looked a bit up and down, which is a bit unusual for them.
“Ferrari have looked quick, Mercedes looked quick as well at points, but I think we are definitely in the fight. We’ll try to find a bit more tomorrow, but where we were today is not unrealistic.”
In FP3, Leclerc was fourth behind teammate Carlos Sainz, with Mercedes’ George Russel fifth and Max Verstappen of Red Bull again struggling as he finished sixth.
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But it was a truly chaotic session with Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez both crashing and bringing out red flags. After the second incident, there was just a handful of minutes left in the session, with every driver going out on track in a desperate bid to squeeze in a final flying lap – leading to scary scenes as drivers tried to find space or clean air on track.
Daniel Ricciardo, who ended up 11th, was lucky to avoid being hit by the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, after the Aussie slowed to a near-halt in the centre of the track. Piastri also had a near-miss in the traffic jam.
Track position is hugely important at Imola, where overtaking is difficult – so much so that Leclerc said Friday: “Track position here is absolutely everything, so qualifying will be super important and it will be important for us to do the job in qualifying.”
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