#fp3

I am glad Lando made it out of the garage at least. And that he and Oscar made top 10. Do I wish they were higher? Of course but I’ll take what I can at this rate.

final practice session of the weekend!

mclaren mechanics worked late into the night to repair lando's car - replaced everything to make sure it woks

mclaren were fined after they were found to have taped up the clutch release button for aerodynamic gains, which meant the marshals couldn't engage it when lando stopped on track yesterday

perez reported very early on that his brakes were on fire - pitted, but much less damaging than yesterday

stroll was told to box as his engineers think he had contact with the wall

lewis said that his "seat still moves around"

franco had a slide in the hairpin, after his car didn't slow down as much as expected - pitted with damage to his rear wing

lawson had a big moment through swimming pool with the rear stepping out after going over a bump - managed to catch it

can see how traffic will be an issue in q1 after george had to abandon a push lap after closing on carlos very quickly into rascasse, who was himself held up behind lewis

charles ran deep into the nouvelle chicane and got caught in traffic on his comparative push lap to the mercs

red flag - ollie crashed after trying to get past george going up beau rivage. hopefully his car will be fixed in time for quali

green flag - only four minutes left on the clock

only perez, bottas and alonso managed to improve their lap times

charles complained that "these brakes are horrendous" would've cooled down during the red flag

lewis and lando were unhappy with each other on their final laps. lando said "he got in my way. he did it on purpose." and lewis said, "norris exaggerated into turn 15 ... make it look like i was blocking him"

lewis was on a quick slow lap trying to get round before the chequered flag and lando was on a push lap, but wasn't going fast enough to improve his time

Lando's onboard:

(Weekend Preview | FP1 | FP2)

At a glance:

Lando

P9 - 1:14.006 (+1.286)

24 laps

Top speed (at speed trap): 281 kph

Oscar

P6 - 1:13.698 (+0.978)

20 laps

Top speed (at speed trap): 281 kph

Highlights:

Lando's FP2 issue resolved - The team used on of their curfew exemptions to thoroughly investigate and repair the problem. It was traced to the wiring harness, which was swapped out along with the energy store main enclosure. the latter was within the permitted allocation for the season. The team have declared the issue to be comprehensively solved. The lost time on track is always detrimental, but doubly so in Monaco, perhaps the series' most unforgiving circuit.

Most wait to go out - FP3 is about getting the most representative quali runs possible, so teams tend to hold off sending drivers out until more rubber is laid down and track temperatures are up. That said, some drivers went out almost right away, with Lando bringing up the rear of that first group, in order to get more laps under their belts. The team mentioned that his FP3 session would be a busier one than usual in an attempt to make up for lost time, and he ran a fairly conventional practice program on soft tires in the first part of the session. Oscar hopped in and also went out on soft tires about five minutes after his teammate.

Cadillac on fire, and not in the good way - Cadillac broke curfew last night to repair Perez's car from a fire in his front right brake. Less than ten minutes in, Bottas reported smoke coming from his brakes. Minutes after that, Perez reported a fire in his left brake. Both drivers were able to make it to the pit on their own without a flag or a VSC needing to be brought out.

Mercedes show improvement over yesterday - While Antonelli showed pace early on in FP1, Mercedes appeared to struggle somewhat in the sessions yesterday, with their pace a bit off from Ferrari. Today, however, they looked back on form with Antonelli and Russell consistently shedding time throughout FP3 and running closely with Leclerc, who has been showing dominance on this track so far this weekend. Antonelli ultimately topped the session with the only time dipping into the 1:12s, 0.3s ahead of Leclerc.

McLaren continue to test front wings - Radio messages indicated that both drivers had planned nosecone swaps during the session, indicating that they are still gathering data on their front wing upgrade. From the timings, it appears the development wing is still quite a bit slower on this circuit. It feels a bit unusual to be doing this kind of experimentation during FP3, but the team may be making up for lost time on track due to Lando's exit from FP2.

Red flag for third session in a row - Bearman hit the wall at Massenet, leaving a long trail of debris with about 14 minutes remaining in the session. He was out of the car almost right away, and the car was quickly lifted off the track. Bearman repoted bottoming on a bump on the track that caused him to lose control of the car. The high downforce needs of this circuit increases the risk of bottoming, as the teams run the lowest setups possible. When the session went green again, it was a scramble to get out of the pit lane with just four minutes remaining in the session, as all of the teams hoped to have enough time to put in one final quali-style lap. McLaren were at a disadvantage here with their position at the far end of the pitlane from the exit. Building temperature on the tires on a single outlap at a pace to get around the track before the clock hit zero and attempt a final flying lap proved difficult, with Oscar expressing a preference to forego an attempt and instead get the tires to the temperature needed for launch practice. Lando took a flying lap attempt that ended up aborted due to traffic.