Gasly fastest, Verstappen crashes as Mercedes struggles continue

Pierre Gasly topped a badly disrupted final practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix which saw championship leader Max Verstappen crash and Lewis Hamilton recover to third.

Gasly was one of the few drivers to find a break in the melee of yellow flags and took full advantage to set the fastest time of the session with an effort of one minute 42.251secs, enough to finish ahead of Red Bull driver Sergio Perez.

Verstappen arrived in Baku holding the F1 championship lead for the first time in his career but after topping practice one and setting the second-fastest time in FP2, the Saturday session was somewhat of a disaster for the Dutchman.

After experimenting with the Baku escape roads early in the one-hour session, Verstappen then slid awkwardly into the turn 15 barriers, causing practice to be red-flagged for 10 minutes and ending his own running.

After Mercedes endured a torrid time on Friday, ending the day with Lewis Hamilton 11th and Valtteri Bottas 16th, the team recovered to place Hamilton third in final practice.

The reigning champion's time was helped massively by a tow provided by Perez, something highlighted by Bottas' 13th place ranking with an effort one-second off his team-mate's best.

AlphaTauri will take a lot of confidence from the efforts of both Gasly and Tsunoda with the former continuing to ride high on his strong Monaco performance to go fastest in the session. Across the weekend, he has not been lower than sixth.

In eighth, Tsunoda appears to have unlocked some of his pre-season performance after moving to Faenza in recent weeks.

Ferrari continued its strong Friday form into final practice with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both inside the top five.

McLaren and Alpine also placed both cars inside the top 10 with Lando Norris P6, Fernando Alonso P7, Esteban Ocon P8 and Daniel Ricciardo P10.

In the lower reaches, Nikita Mazepin's Haas will face a full inspection after the Russian made contact with the turn 15 barriers. He was able to return to the pits but made contact with both the front and rear-right of his car.

George Russell's qualifying participation is also in question with the Williams driver pulling off the track and leaping from his car after reporting an engine problem.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix final practice times

1 Pierre Gasly [AlphaTauri] 1:42.251

2 Sergio Perez [Red Bull] +0.344s

3 Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] +0.446s

4 Charles Leclerc [Ferrari] +0.527s

5 Carlos Sainz [Ferrari] +0.755s

6 Lando Norris [McLaren] +0.760s

7 Fernando Alonso [Alpine] +0.829s

8 Yuki Tsunoda [AlphaTauri] +0.993s

9 Esteban Ocon [Alpine] +1.043s

10 Daniel Ricciardo [McLaren] +1.306s

11 Sebastian Vettel [Aston Martin] +1.334s

12 Lance Stroll [Aston Martin] +1.431s

13 Valtteri Bottas [Mercedes] +1.494s

14 Kimi Raikkonen [Alfa Romeo] +1.575s

15 Max Verstappen [Red Bull] +1.733s

16 Nicholas Latifi [Williams] +1.803s

17 Antonio Giovinazzi [Alfa Romeo] +1.862s

18 George Russell [Williams] +2.183s

19 Mick Schumacher [Haas] +3.031s

20 Nikita Mazepin [Haas] +3.460s

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