Lewis Hamilton laid down a commanding marker during the final practice session ahead of Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix.
It was the first fully dry session of the weekend at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, after showers disrupted both hours on Friday, allowing drivers to get a feel for the resurfaced track.
Mercedes driver Hamilton, who claimed his maiden pole position and victory at the event 17 years ago, posted a time of 1:12.549s as drivers completed qualifying simulations on Soft tyres.
Hamilton clocked his time earlier than his opponents and at that stage held an advantage of seven-tenths of a second; while that was whittled away, second-placed Max Verstappen still faced a 0.374s deficit to Hamilton.
Red Bull has moved Verstappen onto his old engine for the remainder of the weekend after his fresh unit, installed ahead of Friday’s running, suffered an electrical issue in FP2.
George Russell was third for Mercedes while home representative Lance Stroll took an encouraging fourth for Aston Martin.
McLaren finished with Oscar Piastri fifth and Lando Norris seventh, sandwiching the eye-catching RB of Daniel Ricciardo.
Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin with recently retained Sergio Perez ninth for Red Bull.
Ferrari had a subdued session as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both struggled for pace.
Leclerc described the SF-24 as “s*** on the brakes” and declared the team to be “slow” after he finished at the foot of the top 10, eight-tenths of a second adrift of leader Hamilton.
Sainz was only 12th, with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen splitting the Ferrari drivers.
Alex Albon and Zhou Guanyu both suffered early conclusions to their respective sessions after hitting the wall.
Albon drifted wide exiting the final chicane – hitting the Wall of Champions – and broke the right-rear of the Williams FW46, though was able to recover the damaged car to the pits.
Zhou lost the rear of the C44 through Turn 1 and spun backwards into the barriers at Turn 2 just five minutes into the session.
“The car is so strange man,” Zhou complained after the incident. “It just locks up all the rears.”
The impact was only minor but Zhou was unable to return the car to the pits, marking the second straight session in which he crashed, after aquaplaning into the wall at Turn 5 on Friday.
Qualifying is scheduled for 16:00 local time.
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