Verstappen tops wet third Canadian GP practice

Max Verstappen was fastest on a soaking-wet final Saturday practice session ahead of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, after Carlos Sainz crashed his Ferrari at the first turn.

The hour started with the track under significant amount of standings water and with drivers requiring the full-wet tire just to make it around the lap. But the rain had eased by the time the pit lane opened, and it took only 10 minutes of cars circulating for the Aston Martin drivers to be the first to sample the intermediates.

The green-marked rubber was faster around most parts of the lap, but puddles in the braking zone for the hairpin and the final chicane prevented Fernando Alonso from taking top spot immediately, the Spaniard repeatedly running off-track in the final sector. By the time he’d strung a lap together, most of the rest of the field had switched to intermediates too, and top spot rotated rapidly between several drivers.

Valtteri Bottas took it first before Alonso lowered the benchmark. Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen then took turns in first place until the Dutchman slammed in a couple of fast laps to cement himself at the top of the order with a fastest time of 1m23.106s.

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The times behind Verstappen continued to improve, but no one could match the Red Bull Racing driver before the rain intensified in the final 10 minutes, forcing drivers back into pit lane and effectively ending the session early.

Leclerc was second quickest at 0.291s off the pace, while third-placed Alonso was 1.377s adrift in what had been rapidly improving conditions before the final 10 minutes.

Kevin Magnussen slotted into fourth ahead of Sainz, who sat out the final half-hour after crashing his Ferrari at Turn 1.

The Spaniard had just set his best time of the session when he lost control of his car on the white line in the braking zone at the end of the front straight, sending the SF-23 spinning underneath him. It smashed nose-first into the outside barrier, wiping off its nose cone, and then whacked the barrier with its rear-right corner before coming to a stop in the middle of the run-off zone.

It took a seven-minute red flag to recover his car from the track, although Ferrari didn’t get the chassis back until after the end of the session, leaving the team with less than 2.5 hours before qualifying to effect repairs.

Sainz will also have to see the stewards before qualifying to answer accusations of blocking Alex Albon in the treacherous conditions.

Pierre Gasly was sixth ahead of Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda, who survived a spin through the Turn 3-4 chicane during the opening 10 minutes.

Valtteri Bottas ended up ninth ahead of Lewis Hamilton, whose Mercedes was competitive on full wets but struggled to generate tire temperature on the intermediates.

Hulkenberg was 11th ahead of McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Albon was aggrieved by Sainz on his way to 14th ahead of George Russell and Nyck de Vries.

Sergio Perez struggled with tire temperatures on the intermediates on his way to 17th ahead of Zhou Guanyu, Esteban Ocon and Logan Sargeant.