Teammate Sergio Pérez was again faster than Verstappen and set the fastest time of everyone: 1.43.170. Leclerc was seven hundredths slower. Verstappen followed almost three tenths of his teammate. He was still fast moving towards the end of practice, with a purple (fastest) first sector at the time, but then ran into traffic and was held up by Fernando Alonso. On Friday, Verstappen also had little luck during his fast laps in the training sessions. Pérez was also held up during a very last attempt to improve his fastest time.
Carlos Sainz, Leclerc’s teammate at Ferrari, set the fourth fastest time. The differences between Red Bull and Ferrari and the rest of the world were again huge in Baku.
It is known that Verstappen is not yet completely satisfied with the RB18, the car of this season. He wants more grip at the front. The new cars, with the ground floor effect, and bigger tires from Pirelli are currently making it difficult for Red Bull to give Verstappen his ideal car, explained technical director Pierre Waché.
Qualifying starts on Saturday at 4.15 pm. Fifteen minutes later than planned, because the third training started later after repair work.