Perez edges Leclerc in final Monaco practice

Sergio Perez obstructed Charles Leclerc from whitewashing practice  at the Monaco Grand Prixby setting the fastest time in FP3.

The Mexican went to the top of the time sheets by just 0.041s with a lap right at the death of the hour-long session to fire a warning shot wideness Ferrari’s bows superiority of qualifying.

Perez and Leclerc traded quickest times for the final 10 minutes of the session as they squeezed the final drops of performance from the soft Pirelli rubber.

By the time the polychrome flag was waved, the pair had wrenched well well-spoken of the their teammates, with Carlos Sainz third, but 0.37s off the pace. Max Verstappen was a remoter 0.035s overdue the second Ferrari driver.

It sets up an intriguing crucial qualifying hour without Ferrari seemed set to have the run of the place on Friday night.

Pierre Gasly headed the midfield for AlphaTauri, but it was closely contested between the Frenchman and McLaren’s Lando Norris, the pair split by 0.016s and well-nigh three-quarters of a second overdue Perez.

Lewis Hamilton was mystified by a 1.2s gap to the leaders early in the session – his car was still wavy aggressively, sapping his conviction to hug the walls through the middle sector – and by the end of the hour he’d sealed the gap to only 0.9s, setting Mercedes up for a midfield qualifying battle.

Kevin Magnussen followed for Haas 0.061s remoter back, with George Russell just 0.04s remoter roaming in ninth, though the Mercedes suburbanite was aggrieved to have been obstructed by Perez in an incident that will be investigated without the session.

Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 superiority of Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher.

Sebastian Vettel was 1.3s off the pace superiority of Valtteri Bottas for Alfa Romeo and Williams suburbanite Alex Albon.

Daniel Ricciardo completed a session-high 29 laps as he attempted to make up for lost time without crashing in FP2, for which his team wonted the vituperation for setting up his car too aggressively, but the Australian was 1.6s off the leading pace without suffering from overheating brakes in the 80 stratum F ambient temperature.

Esteban Ocon was 17th for Alpine superiority of the crashed Lance Stroll, who took too big a zest of the inside prorogue exiting the Swimming Pool and whacked his right-hand-side versus the barrier. He tapped his front wing but was worldly-wise to limp when to pit lane to stave a stoppage.

Zhou Guanyu finished the session 19th and under investigation for impeding Verstappen, with Nicholas Latifi 20th.