Mercedes’ George Russell headed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to lead the times during a disrupted third and final practice session at the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Russell, whose participation in FP2 was restricted, lowered the benchmark lap to a 1:42.514s in the closing exchanges to prop up 0.013 seconds quicker than Leclerc.
The session came to a halt 15 minutes in as Esteban Ocon, whose running in FP1 was limited, ground to a halt in the last sector with an engine problem on his Alpine.
There would be a second stoppage as Oliver Bearman, embarking on his race debut with Haas this weekend, touched the wall at Turn 1 and damaged his suspension.
Bearman carried too much speed heading into the first corner and his late attempt to head down the escape road saw him tag the barrier and come to an abrupt stop.
Both drivers, who will become team-mates at Haas next term, were unable to set a representative time and languished at the bottom with their participation curtailed.
Proceedings would be uninterrupted through the remaining 20 minutes, though, with Russell pipping Leclerc right at the death to elevate his Mercedes to the top spot.
Leclerc, who is gunning to log a fourth consecutive pole in Baku, edged the McLaren drivers – Lando Norris heading Oscar Piastri – to second place overall in the order.
Max Verstappen rounded out the top five, 0.348s behind Russell’s time, with Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari splitting the Red Bull duo as Sergio Perez was seventh.
Williams produced an impressive outing as Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto were line astern in eighth and ninth, edging Lewis Hamilton, who was 10th for Mercedes.
Fernando Alonso mustered 11th in the lead Aston Martin car as team-mate Lance Stroll split the RB cars, with Yuki Tsunoda leading Daniel Ricciardo in 12th and 14th.
Pierre Gasly in the sole Alpine that completed the session was down in 15th. Haas’ earlier promising practice pace dissipated as Nico Hulkenberg languished in 16th.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in the two Sauber cars were the slowest drivers to have registered representative lap times, ahead of Ocon and Bearman at the back.
