FP3: At Monaco, Verstappen leads Sainz and Leclerc after Schumacher’s collision s tops the practice early.

Max Verstappen of Red Bull posted the quickest time in FP3 to finish ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc – with Lewis Hamilton down in P7 as Mercedes suffered through a challenging practice. FP3 was cut short by two red lights, the first for Nicholas Latifi’s collision at Swimming Pool with 15 minutes remaining, and the second for Mick Schumacher’s massive collision as he entered Casino Square three minutes before the end of the hour, which caused the session to conclude early. Previously, Ferrari had resumed service on Thursday, when they took a surprise one-two in FP2, with Sainz leading at the halfway point.

However, following the first red flag period, Verstappen’s timing was 0.047s faster than the Spaniard’s. By the end of the session, Leclerc was third, 0.258s behind the leader. 4th position Valtteri Bottas finished over a half-second behind than the leader, with Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton missing out on crucial soft-tyre running due to the cautions, finishing sixth. Sergio Perez of Red Bull was fifth, while McLaren’s Lando Norris was sixth. Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi finished eighth and eleventh, respectively, with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly ninth and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel tenth to complete an Alfa sandwich.

Vettel’s teammate Lance Stroll qualified 12th, ahead of a struggling Daniel Ricciardo in the McLaren, and Schumacher’s ailing Haas was 14th quickest courtesy to a late soft-tyre lap.