McLaren issues final warning ahead of Qualifying

McLaren left no doubt about its front-running form ahead of Qualifying in Jeddah, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri trading fastest laps on their way to locking out the top two spots in the final practice session.

Despite having just one hour left ahead of an all-important Qualifying session, hiding away from the Saudi Arabian sun as opposed to circulating the high-speed street circuit proved to be more of a priority for the majority of the grid.

One of the rare drivers to instantly exit the pitlane was Jack Doohan, with the Alpine driver hoping to build confidence on the soft compound tyre before the shootout kicks off. 

Putting his head down, the Australian set an initial time of 1:30.613s, however, he had nothing to compare it to across the opening ten minutes of FP3.

Doohan returned to his garage to switch out his three-lap-old tyres for another fresh set of the soft compound, now joined on track by the Haas and Aston Martin duos, along with Gabriel Bortoleto who underwent a complete chassis change overnight.

Going three-tenths quicker than his FP2, Doohan jumped to the top of the order with an impressive time of 1:29.666s, however, he was noted by the stewards for crossing the white line at the pit entry—an infringement that resulted in a reprimand for Liam Lawson yesterday.

Coming with 10cm of the concrete apex at Turn 22, Doohan held onto a top ten time as the session surpassed the halfway mark, sitting just over half-a-tenth behind his teammate.

As the laps ticked by, Doohan fell down the order as he retreated to the pitlane, before emerging for one final time and slotting into P15.

When Oscar Piastri finally joined the last practice session of the weekend, the McLaren driver instantly lit up the timesheets as he accumulated purple sectors across the 6.1km to cross the like with a benchmark of 1:29.118s. 

Besting his own sector times, the Australian again wowed as he toured the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for a second flying lap, reducing his previous benchmark by five-tenths. 

His next attempt came to an end at Turn 27 through no fault of his own as Yuki Tsunoda, putting the Red Bull mechanics’ restorative work on full display, failed to look in his mirrors as he rounded the final turn, impeding Piastri before he returned to the pitlane.

With 20 minutes remaining, the soft compound tyre still had a hold on Piastri who emerged on yet another fresh set of the red-marked tyre.

Responding to George Russell’s P1 robbery, the #81 sent a statement to the competition as he crossed the line seven-tenths faster than the Mercedes.

Despite that margin, the intra-team margin quickly reduced to lean less than two-tenths in Piastri’s favour, however, Lando Norris soon flipped the script as the session came to a close, holing onto P1 over the Australian.

Coming as close as possible to the walls, a wayward Piastri aborted his last run, retreating to the pitlane before conducting his final practice start on the grid.

Taking a strategic approach to open his FP3 session, Liam Lawson started the session with the simple task of scrubbing a set of hard compound tyres for later use, delivering the white-marked tyre back to his team before genuinely starting his session just minutes later.

On the soft compound, the Kiwi instantly slotted his VCARB 02 into the top ten with a time of 1:30.153s, however, he was still a decent 1.5 seconds off the pace.

His second attempt was over before it started, with Lawson out-braking himself into Turn 1— an error that saw him returning to the pitlane 27 corners later.

Lawson quite literally launched out of the pitlane after undertaking a practice start from the pit exit, however, he failed to improve from P18 until the final 15 minutes of the session when he jumped eight positions with a time of 1:29.100s.

Rounding out the session on a fresh set of soft compound tyres, Lawson edged closer to his teammate as he shaved over two-tenths off his previous lap.

The Kiwi ended FP3 with the 13th fastest time to his name.

As for the rest of the field, when the hold of the unrepresentative track conditions finally loosened after 15 minutes of the session had ticked by, the Ferrari duo were the first of the top four teams to make the jump, inspiring the competition to follow shortly after.

As was the case across all of Friday’s running, the McLaren challengers were the initial front-runners of the session, with Piastri and Norris settling into P1 and P2 with less than two-tenths the difference. 

Both Ferrari and Red Bull camps were struggling to find confidence in their cars, with grip a major issue for the Italian squad while Max Verstappen listed off a haul of faults with his RB20. 

Despite their best soft compound efforts, Charles Leclerc and Verstappen both failed to match the pace of the papaya duo, instead partaking in a lap-by-lap shootout of their own for the final place in the top three. 

Both of their teammates sat well off the pace in P8 and P9, with Lewis Hamilton admitting that securing a place within the top ten had become a difficult task in recent times.

The Ferrari driver had a sour reaction to learning his pace disadvantage, discovering he was seven-tenths down in Sector 1 and four-tenths down in Sector 2.

On the flip side, the man he replaced at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, was finally starting to piece the puzzle that was his new Williams together during FP3, jumping into P5 with a solid time of 1:28.896s while Alex Albon sat just one-tenth behind.

A lull fell over the circuit as drivers prepared for the most optimal conditions of the session—albeit still unrepresentative—and they returned to continue the soft tyre shootout.

Russell was the first driver to stake his claim at stealing the top time from Piastri, failing to do so as the McLaren drivers drastically improved and cemented their place at the head of the field.

Setting a time of 1:27.489s, a late charge from Lando Norris demoted his seemingly untouchable teammate as FP3 came to a close, lapping 24 milliseconds quicker than Piastri as the chequered flag waved in Jeddah.

Qualifying to set the grid for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will kick off at 03:00 AEST.

Image: McLaren

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