Max Verstappen narrowly beat Carlos Sainz during final practice for Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix as title leader Lewis Hamilton classified only seventh.
Sainz maintained Ferrari’s strong Thursday form for much of the session before his benchmark was usurped by Verstappen in cooler and cloudier conditions compared to second practice.
Verstappen’s time of 1:11.294 was not beaten thereafter as he wound up a mere 0.047s clear of Ferrari driver Sainz.
Further potential improvements were not possible during the final two minutes of the session after Mick Schumacher crashed heavily through Casino Square.
Hamilton had not been a factor at the front of the leaderboard during the session and thus classified only seventh, seven-tenths off the pace, leaving him and Mercedes with pace to find prior to qualifying.
Charles Leclerc, who led Thursday’s running on home soil, wound up third, ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Norris narrowly avoided a collision with Sainz in the final sector after catching his former team-mate while on a hot lap.
Lunchtime work for Williams and Haas
Nicholas Latifi was the first driver to suffer a hefty shunt this weekend after making a mistake at the second part of Piscine.
Latifi clipped the inside barrier, with the trajectory sending him over the yellow kerb on the second apex, leaving him helpless to avoid a secondary – and more costly – impact with the outside barrier.
The front-right of Latifi’s Williams FW43B sustained sizeable damage and caused the session to be halted.
The session was restarted but then called two minutes from time after fellow Monaco F1 debutant Schumacher had a sizeable accident through Casino Square.
The left-hand-side of Schumacher’s Haas VF-21 sustained a large amount of damage with the team facing a race against time to repair the car in time for qualifying.
It means that of the four Monaco F1 rookies – with Latifi having not raced at the Principality since stepping up in 2020 – three have suffered session-ending accidents.
Nikita Mazepin, who has so far kept it clean, was 16th overall, two spots behind Schumacher.
Ricciardo, Alpine off the pace
Daniel Ricciardo’s troubled weekend continued as the 2018 Monaco victor classified only 13th overall, almost a second behind team-mate Norris.
Alpine also had a difficult session with Fernando Alonso 15th and Esteban Ocon – hampered by the red flags – at the foot of the 20-driver classification.
Their struggles opened some opportunities higher up the field, with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel – yet to score in 2021 – inside the top 10, either side of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly.
Qualifying for Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix will begin at 15:00 local time
Position Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1
Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:11.294 19 2
Carlos Sainz Jr Ferrari 1:11.341 0.047 28 3
Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:11.552 0.258 27 4
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:11.765 0.471 21 5
Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:11.817 0.523 18 6
Lando Norris McLaren 1:11.988 0.694 20 7
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:12.020 0.726 20 8
Kimi Raikkonen Sauber 1:12.298 1.004 25 9
Pierre Gasly RB 1:12.357 1.063 28 10
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:12.537 1.243 24 11
Antonio Giovinazzi Sauber 1:12.539 1.245 21 12
Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:12.700 1.406 22 13
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:12.959 1.665 25 14
Mick Schumacher Haas 1:13.139 1.845 21 15
Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:13.329 2.035 19 16
Nikita Mazepin Haas 1:13.390 2.096 20 17
George Russell Williams 1:13.447 2.153 29 18
Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:13.475 2.181 22 19
Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:13.522 2.228 30 20
Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:13.614 2.320 18