Mexican GP FP3: Sergio Perez leads a Red Bull 1-2 in final practice

Sergio Pérez topped the final free practice session in front of his adoring home crowd at the 2021 Mexican GP. Max Verstappen was in second position, 0.193 seconds behind the Mexican. Lewis Hamilton was in third position with a gap of 0.651 seconds behind the leader.

The sixty-minute long all-important third free practice session started under sunny conditions with air temperatures at 17 degrees C and track temperatures at 35 degrees C.

The track had cement dust deposited on it due to oil leakages from the support races making it even more slippery.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4).

After silence for the first five minutes, Yuki Tsunoda was the first driver on the track on a used set of soft compound tyres. The young Japanese driver was joined by Lance Stroll and George Russell.

Tsunoda and Stroll will start from the back of the grid due to penalties for new power unit components. Lando Norris and Esteban Ocon will also join them at the back for the same reason. Russell has a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Tsunoda set the first timed lap and improved on it with a lap time of 1m19.744s. Norris joined the fray on a new set of soft compound tyres and slotted into second position.

With less than forty minutes to go, the Scuderia Ferrari drivers came out on the track on a set of soft compound tyres. Both drivers kicked up cement dust and slid around on the oily patch.

Bottas went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m18.661s with Hamilton 0.109 seconds behind him. Pérez cheered by his home crowd went faster than Bottas by 0.036 seconds.

Times started tumbling as the track improved and Charles Leclerc went to the top of the time sheets.

With less than thirty minutes to go, Verstappen finally came out of the garage and took first position with a lap time of 1m17.537s. Verstappen was faster than Pérez by 0.397 seconds.

Bottas then improved to take second position, just 0.171 seconds behind the Dutchman. Verstappen further improved on his lap time by 0.320 seconds.

With less than fifteen minutes to go, Leclerc was the first driver to come out for the final qualification simulation runs on a set of new soft compound tyres. But Leclerc had a spin and went back into the pits.

Hamilton on his first flying lap improved to third position but still 0.686 seconds slower than Verstappen. Pérez then slotted into second position, just 0.055 seconds behind Verstappen.

On his second flying lap, Pérez went fastest with a lap time of 1m17.024s. Verstappen could not get his brand new set of soft compound tyres in the right temperature range and stayed in second position, 0.193 seconds behind the Mexican.

Hamilton and Bottas were in third and fourth positions. Sainz and Tsunoda finished in fifth and sixth positions, nearly one second slower than the leaders.

Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly were in seventh and eighth positions. Leclerc and Norris rounded off the top ten positions.

It is advantage Red Bull Racing going into the qualification session.

2021 Mexican GP FP3 Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1:17.024		15
2	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1:17.217	+0.193s	12
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:17.675	+0.651s	14
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:17.708	+0.684s	17
5	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:18.029	+1.005s	20
6	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:18.037	+1.013s	25
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:18.121	+1.097s	15
8	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:18.202	+1.178s	18
9	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:18.213	+1.189s	20
10	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:18.312	+1.288s	16
11	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:18.352	+1.328s	20
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:18.531	+1.507s	22
13	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:18.556	+1.532s	19
14	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:18.614	+1.590s	17
15	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	1:18.847	+1.823s	15
16	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1:18.999	+1.975s	17
17	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1:19.211	+2.187s	19
18	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:19.238	+2.214s	14
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:19.313	+2.289s	12
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	RAF	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:20.479	+3.455s	15