Russell heads McLarens as Red Bull struggle in final practice
The Mercedes driver was just 0.095s faster than Lando Norris and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who was 0.392s adrift in third.
Alex Albon was an eye-catching fourth for Williams, only half a second off Russell’s benchmark, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
World champion Max Verstappen was only sixth as he complained about the balance and handling of his usually-dominant Red Bull.
Verstappen, who reported having “quite a loose rear” and “sliding a lot” during the early stages of FP3, ended up 0.735s off the pace.
Esteban Ocon put his Alpine seventh, ahead of Williams’ Logan Sargeant, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Zhou Guanyu, who rounded out the top-10 for Alfa Romeo.
Sergio Perez was eight tenths adrift in the second Red Bull as he finished a lowly 11th, while Lewis Hamilton was 12th after spending much of the session focused on long runs.
