Pierre Gasly fastest, Max Verstappen crashes as Mercedes struggles continue

Max Verstappen crasht in VT3 — Photo: © LAT Images

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Gasly fastest, Verstappen crashes as Mercedes struggles continue

Yellow flags, a red flag and the virtual safety car badly disrupt final practice

Sam Hall

Saturday 5 June 2021 12:06 Updated: 12:26

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.

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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.