BAKU (Reuters) – Red Bull’s Sergio Perez edged out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to place himself again on high in Saturday’s final Formula One practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Mexican, who headed into the weekend along with his sights set on following up his Monaco victory by turning into the primary repeat winner on the Baku metropolis monitor, lapped the six-km, barrier-lined format in one minute 43.170 seconds.
That was ok to eclipse Leclerc, who’s trying to bounce again from the double disappointment of shedding out on victory in Spain and Monaco, by 0.070 seconds.
The pair have traded locations on the high of the practice timesheets all weekend, with Perez quickest in Friday’s opening session and Leclerc taking on in practice two.
World championship chief Max Verstappen, who’s 9 factors forward of Leclerc and 15 forward of Perez in the general standings, needed to abort his final flying lap and accept third almost 0.3 seconds off the tempo.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz was fourth for Ferrari forward of McLaren group mates Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo.
Pierre Gasly was seventh for AlphaTauri forward of Mercedes driver George Russell and Esteban Ocon’s Alpine.
Aston Martin’s four-times champion Sebastian Vettel rounded out the highest 10.
Lewis Hamilton, who modified the set-up on his Mercedes in the course of the session, was solely twelfth. The Briton was knowledgeable by his race engineer that his engine had been turned down.
The final practice session received underway quarter-hour late after a crash in the previous Formula Two race broken some limitations.
Qualifying will subsequently additionally begin with a 15-minute delay in a while Saturday.
(Reporting by Abhishek Takle; enhancing by Clare Fallon)
