Kimi Antonelli returned to the top of the timesheets with Mercedes during final practice in Monaco, beating the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to set the fastest lap.
Antonelli posted an impressive time of 1 m 12.720 s on the soft tires and opened up a lead of more than three tenths over his Monegasque rival, who was unable to improve due to a late struggle with his brakes.
The session provided a final opportunity for teams and drivers to fine-tune set-ups and find their confidence around the narrow roads before heading into the most important qualifying hour of the season.
Shortly before the green light at 1230 local time, McLaren shared that they had completed “extensive work” on Lando Norris’ car after he stopped 15 minutes in FP2 on Friday, and said the team broke curfew to replace the wiring harness and ESME pack “within the permitted allocation”.
It was the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton who took to the track early, with the Aston Martin drivers, Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, having spent FP1 battling with Lock around tight corners.
This time, Bottas was the first to report serious trouble as smoke began to billow from his brakes, with the Finn limping back into the pits – his teammate Sergio Pérez had previously endured a brake fire that forced a red flag period in FP2, and quickly joined Bottas on the list of Cadillac issues.
Things seemed to be going more smoothly for Ferrari as the number of cars on the track increased and Leclerc set the first benchmark time of 1 minute 15.184 seconds, but there remains much development of the track.
This was soon demonstrated by Hamilton, who broke into the 1m 14s bracket, beating the Monegasque driver’s time by seven tenths before Norris – trying to recover time lost in second practice – moved to the top of the timesheets by just 0.015 seconds.
Due to everyone racing on red-walled soft tyres, the early races continued to suffer from periodic drops in time. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were the next to set a new standard, as they came close to yesterday’s fastest laps and began to challenge the Scuderia, showing more after Mercedes’ poor performance on Friday.
Approaching the halfway mark, yellow flags waved briefly as Franco Colapinto spun at the hairpin and clipped the barrier with the rear of his Alpine, but he was able to recover and return to the pits.
Alex Albon also made a mistake which forced him to make a short visit to the escape route at Sainte Dévote before the action calmed down, with most going back to the garage to watch his first qualifying simulation run.
There was a breathless improvement for Antonelli, with the Italian clocking up sectors 1 and 2 to set the fastest time of the weekend so far – a brilliant 1m 12.720s. But anyone hoping to sit on his lap was put off by the red flag brought by Ollie Bearman’s stranded Haas. The Briton suffered a heavy landslide at Massenet and crashed into the wall, sending debris across the circuit.
The session restarted with a few minutes remaining but no one could get close to Antonelli as Leclerc described his brakes as feeling “terrible” as he moved up to P2 ahead of his teammate Hamilton. Russell finished fourth in the second Mercedes, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
Gabriel Bortoletto was an attractive P7 for Audi as he continued his run of top 10 finishes in free practice at this circuit, with his teammate Nico Hulkenberg placing P10 behind Isak Hadjar and Lando Norris.
Haas’s Esteban Ocon finished 11th, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly and Bearman’s damaged second Haas. Next was Lawson and Arvid Lindblad for Racing Bulls, with Albon separating the pair in P16. Pérez, Colapinto, Bottas and the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completed the order.
Drivers and teams now have little time to reset before qualifying begins at 1600 local time.