In FP3 of the Canadian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton took first place and Max Verstappen second, as Mercedes showed improved speed within a lap around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
George Russell took third, Lance Stroll fourth and Oscar Piastri completed the top five.
But Hamilton held a 0.374 second lead over Verstappen, as the seven-time Montreal winner showed flashes and the reigning world champion took the win.
On Friday, ERS-related issues caused Red Bull to be demoted to second place.
Lewis Hamilton tops FP3 as Canadian GP qualifying prep ramps up
After the mixed conditions that hampered the drivers’ running on Friday, FP3 started in completely dry conditions in Montréal on Saturday, with the drivers getting straight out on track for the final practice hour.
Max Verstappen, on his first flying lap, suffered a snap of oversteer into the final chicane and hopped over the kerbs, dubbing the steering on his Red Bull “super weird for me” afterwards.
After a run into the wall in FP1 on Friday, a rear lock-up for Zhou Guanyu into Turn 1 saw him spin his Sauber and slide backwards into the barrier on the entry to Turn 2 – which brought out the red flags after six minutes of the session.
It was only a brief hiatus while Zhou’s car was extracted and brought back to the pit lane, however, with the rest of the field quickly able to get back on with their FP3 programmes. With the drivers exploring the limits in representative conditions arguably for the first time this weekend, Alex Albon ran onto the grass at the chicane of Turns 8 and 9, blaming brake issues at that time.
Fernando Alonso, who set a 1m14.870s on the hard tyre, led the times for the first 20 minutes and improved his time by four tenths of a second to 1m14.445s as drivers were trying to make up time lost on Friday after being hampered by rain.
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With that, teams were looking to take a split approach in free practice – Ferrari confirming they were doing so midway through FP3 with Carlos Sainz on soft tyres and Charles Leclerc on mediums, while Red Bull were looking to longer-run pace and sister team RB were looking at qualifying pace.
As were Williams, with Logan Sargeant setting purple first and second sectors before going top on a 1:14.355, with Sainz unable to beat him on soft tyres.
That time at the top of the leaderboard would not last long for the American, though, as George Russell soon pipped Sargeant as more drivers began to make the switch to soft tyres.
A flurry of one-lap runs came in and Lewis Hamilton put himself quickest on a 1:13.464, just 0.011s ahead of Lando Norris heading into the final third of FP3, with the drivers and teams getting their eyes in ahead of qualifying later on.
The first brush with the Wall of Champions came late in the session as the Williams of Alex Albon damaged his suspension on the way out of Turn 14, a big hit on the final kerb sending him wide and brushing the final wall. He continued to drive, albeit slowly, and was able to get the car back into the pit lane.
Further faster laps followed towards the end of the session, with Russell first overtaking his Mercedes teammate Hamilton, but the seven-time world champion set a time of 1m12.549s, seven tenths faster than the rest.
Towards the end of FP3 the competitors tried to close the gap on Hamilton, but it was Verstappen who came closest as the others overtook each other. Still, he was within four tenths of the Mercedes driver, but it was a tough start to Saturday’s unpredictable qualifying at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
