Lando Norris Tops Final Practice at Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Lando Norris set the fastest time in the final practice session for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Saturday, positioning himself strongly for qualifying. He outpaced teammate Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen.

After Oscar Piastri, his McLaren teammate and championship leader, had been quicker in both practice sessions on Friday at Imola, Norris reversed the situation in the crucial final session before qualifying.

Norris`s quickest lap on the soft tyres was 1:14.897, exactly one-tenth of a second faster than Piastri. Piastri`s best effort came on his second lap on Pirelli`s new softest compound, where performance typically drops slightly.

Red Bull`s Max Verstappen finished third, 0.181 seconds behind Norris. Notably, Verstappen set his best time on the slower medium compound after failing to improve on the soft tyres.

Verstappen has recently beaten McLaren to pole position, taking three of the last four. Red Bull appears to have improved the handling of his car after a difficult start in Practice One.

Verstappen wasn`t the only driver to find their fastest time on the medium tyre. Pirelli`s new C6 compound, the softest available and debuting at Imola this weekend, proved challenging for many to keep within the optimal operating window for the entire Imola lap.

Track conditions were slightly cooler and cloudier on Saturday. McLaren seems to maintain an advantage when it comes to managing tyre performance over a lap.

Local driver Kimi Antonelli made a late improvement on softs to climb to fourth for Mercedes. However, he was still half a second behind Norris, highlighting McLaren`s strong form after topping all practice sessions with one-two finishes.

Charles Leclerc was Ferrari`s lead driver in fifth. Lewis Hamilton, who struggled with braking on Friday, finished 10th, three tenths behind Leclerc. Hamilton made a mistake during the session, briefly going into the gravel at Rivazza.

Ferrari`s Carlos Sainz took sixth, while Williams` Alex Albon was ninth, continuing their promising pace. Racing Bulls` Isack Hadjar recovered from his Friday crash to secure seventh, just ahead of George Russell in the other Mercedes.

Following the session, one commentator noted, “There`s a lot to digest after that session. Which tyre strategy will be best for qualifying? McLaren`s two cars are consistently at the front, though not by a huge margin. Verstappen in third set his best time on the medium tyre. Can Red Bull extract enough performance from the softs? We might see Verstappen produce another exceptional qualifying lap.”

Emilia Romagna GP Practice Three Results