F1 Canadian GP live commentary and updates - FP3

That's it for free practice - thanks for joining us! We'll be back for qualifying; you may go back to watching Le Mans!

"The car is impossible to drive," says sixth-placed Alonso. There's no pleasing some people...

Verstappen improves, but stays fifth - and that's it for FP3's timing order. Norris goes quickest, from Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton, Verstappen, and Alonso.

Antonelli's found some steady improvement, about 0.4s off Russell now as he works his way up the order. Piastri, meanwhile, is not looking particularly confident.

Tsunoda has been noted for a potential red flag infringement. He's not had many laps today, but he's come to grief in one of the few he's turned so far.

"I'm starting to be really p***ed off with these guys, what are they doing?" Gasly vents, when faced with traffic at Turn 3. Colapinto's traffic manner leaves a little to be desired...

Piastri's wall clip from earlier on

Here's the incident that produced a debris-enforced red flag:

Verstappen improves by a quarter of a second, but he's still fourth - he gets perilously close to the Turn 14 exit barrier too! At this rate, someone's going to hit it in qualifying, such is the interplay between the cars and the Wall of Champions.

So, who's your money on?

Bearman bangs the Wall of Champions this time - the rear end steps out and he clunks the soft bit rather than the hard bit. 

"I think it's fine," the Briton says, casually. "Car's a nightmare, though".

Hamilton crosses the line on another flyer, but is just 0.1s off Russell at the top of the charts. 

Norris, however, does the job - it's a 1m11.799s for the Briton, 0.151s up on Russell's earlier benchmark.

Bearman and Albon break into the top 10, going sixth and seventh respectively - at least, until Sainz then takes control of sixth spot.

No real representative laps from either Tsunoda or Hulkenberg just yet, both are in the pits - Tsunoda's car was receiving some tinkering to its front brakes.

Piastri has returned to the circuit after his earlier smack at the Wall of Champions - so evidently, his rear suspension is okay.

Russell goes fourth with his opening effort - then fifth, as Lando Norris goes second on a set of mediums. Again, grip is looking quite low today.

Verstappen then moves up to eighth with his first lap of the session, which becomes ninth when Isack Hadjar goes sixth. Last thing he wants is to end up in that Red Bull, surely...

Hulkenberg also had a spin out of the final chicane, but somehow kept it out of the wall himself. Quick reflexes from the German to recover his Sauber.

Wall of Provisional Champions? Piastri cannons through the final chicane and bangs the exit wall with his right rear. He backs out of the lap, with a puncture and a shatter of debris from his wheel cover. 

Not ideal at all for the Australian, who's having a tough weekend thus far.

"No rear grip today," Alonso reports as he goes straight on at Turn 13/14.

There was a brief yellow flag, but we currently not sure why - another spinner, perchance?

Gasly puts together a 1m14.424s on the softs, and has to get out of the way of Tsunoda - but his team-mate Colapinto indeed gets in the Red Bull driver's path and blocks his lap. 

Earlier, Colapinto nearly smeared his Alpine into the Wall of Champions - but just about kept it out of harm's way.

Meanwhile, Leclerc sets a 1m14.104s - still two seconds off the pace of yesterday.

Leclerc does a 1m15.004s on the mediums to kick off his session; he's getting said early work done. 

Bearman's now going for a run on mediums, and sets a 1m14.831s. Ocon follows that up with a time 0.277s off his team-mate.

Leclerc also hits the road, passing the scene of his crime (Turn 3) from yesterday. He'll be looking to get plenty of miles on the clock, but first he's effectively doing a shakedown to make sure the rebuild doesn't feel too bad.

Lots of set-up work to catch up on too, so the Monegasque will need to keep tinkering with the Ferrari.

Colapinto kicks us off with a 1m15.366s, first time of the day on soft tyres. Alonso, Stroll, Hadjar, and Lawson are the only other early takers so far...

So...come here often? Oh, we have a car - it's Franco Colapinto coming to break the deadlock! The Argentine had Turn 2 spins in both FP1 and FP2 yesterday, so he's hoping for a less rotationally gifted day today.

Lance Stroll's also on the road, also hoping to bother fewer walls in this session.

FP3 run plans

Expect some qualifying simulations in preparation for a bit later on - yesterday, drivers were unsure if the medium or the soft would be better for qualifying.

The softs should be faster but, if track temperatures continue to increase, the medium might hang on better towards the end of the lap. Pirelli estimates just a 0.1-0.15s delta between the C5 and C6.

Five minutes to go!

F1's opening credits are up - let's watch Lance Stroll's awkward side-step.

Key questions that FP3 can answer

Can Mercedes keep up its pace in slightly warmer conditions? 
Has McLaren found an answer to its iffy pace after FP2?
Where does Ferrari stack up among the front-runners?
Will Williams stay close to the top four teams?
Are any groundhogs brave enough to grace us with their presence?

All this, and more coming very shortly.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

20 minutes until FP3 in Montreal

If you're busy watching Le Mans, then we'll try to keep you fully covered of everything that happens in the final practice session of the Canadian GP weekend.

It's been pretty straightforward in France so far, albeit lots of racing between the hypercars as they navigate the GT3 traffic. Guarantee it's all going to kick off when we switch focus to the F1...

Friday practice analysis

Want to know how the teams stacked up after FP2? We've run the rule over their race runs, and worked out a preliminary order.

Of course, overnight tinkering will change things - but here's how things stand:

Formula 1

What we learned in Friday practice for the F1 Canadian GP

Friday practice at the Canadian Grand Prix offered various intriguing developments, as there was plenty of variance within the timing boards. Ultimately, it was George Russell who topped FP2 - but does this mean the Mercedes driver is on a par with the championship leading McLarens in Montreal?