And the rain has arrived at the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix 2022! After a quieter-than-expected Friday in Montreal, Saturday started with a lot of water on the asphalt and that changed the schedule for absolutely all the drivers and teams.
With far fewer laps completed than usual and after the appearance of the intermediate compound in the last ten minutes of Free Practice 3, Fernando Alonso led the third and final free practice at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve by surprise, just 0.053 seconds ahead of Pierre Gasly and with Sebastian Vettel rounding out the top three positions, which will surely be different several hours from now in qualifying.
Behind, less than a second from the best time of the Asturian driver from Alpine, Esteban Ocon finished fourth, just ahead of the two from McLaren; Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris.
George Russell, Sergio Pérez, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz completed the top ten positions in a very unrepresentative FP3 session.
Lewis Hamilton failed to get past 15th place, with Charles Leclerc 20th. Far from what was expected by all the big favorites because they did not want to risk too much on a rather dangerous track, although the Dutch Red Bull driver was close to going against the wall at the end of FP3.
Canadian GP 2022 F1 FP3 Free Practice 3 Results
Click on “VIEW RESULTS” to see the full time table
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Fernando Alonso |
 |
15 | 1’33.836 | 167.308 | ||
| 2 |  Pierre Gasly |
 |
18 | 1’33.889 | 0.053 | 0.053 | 167,214 |
| 3 |  Sebastian Vettel |
 |
18 | 1’33.891 | 0.055 | 0.002 | 167.210 |
| 4 | Esteban Ocon |
|
16 | 1’34.003 | 0.167 | 0.112 | 167.011 |
| 5 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
 |
14 | 1’34.110 | 0.274 | 0.107 | 166.821 |
| 6 |  Lando Norris |
 |
13 | 1’34.248 | 0.412 | 0.138 | 166.577 |
| 7 | George Russell |
 |
11 | 1’34.259 | 0.423 | 0.011 | 166.558 |
| 8 |  Sergio Perez |
 |
10 | 1,34,498 | 0.662 | 0.239 | 166,136 |
| 9 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
10 | 1’34.616 | 0.780 | 0.118 | 165.929 |
| 10 | Carlos Sainz Jr. |
 |
18 | 1’34,778 | 0.942 | 0.162 | 165,646 |
| see results | |||||||
Summary of Free Practice 3 of the Canadian GP 2022 F1
Contrary to what is usual, as soon as the third and final free practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix had started, almost no drivers took to the track due to the large amount of water on the asphalt.
The first to dare to ride did so with the extreme rain compound and for very few laps, in fact, the only drivers who recorded a time in the first few minutes were the two Haas, with Kevin Magnussen placing first with a 1:39.148.
The two Aston Martins also took to the track and quickly became the two cars with the most laps completed in the first 15 minutes of FP3, albeit with times worse than the clock recorded by the Danish driver de Haas. For his part, Yuki Tsunoda did manage to drop to 1:38.262 to place himself in first place.
The first rider of the big favorites to go out on track was Sergio Pérez, but he didn’t even register a lap time in the time table before returning to the garage.
Valtteri Bottas, after the first 20 minutes of Free Practice 3, was also placed first with the extreme rain compound thanks to a 1:37.909, being the first driver who managed to get below 1:38.
Another of the favourites, Carlos Sainz, with a 1:35.858 broke the time table and climbed to first position at the wheel of his Ferrari, with Fernando Alonso second just over two tenths.
Halfway through FP3, only Max Verstappen and George Russell remained in their garages with a total of zero laps completed on the wet Montreal asphalt.
With 25 minutes to go, the last car to start rolling was the RB18 of the Dutch driver, who did not even set a time before returning to the garage. Meanwhile, the times were very uneven and unrepresentative due to the rain that continued to fall on the Canadian track.
Sebastian Vettel improved Sainz’s time by just 0.037 seconds to take first place in the Aston Martin, with a total of 11 laps completed, trailing only Yuki Tsunoda, who at that point in the session had completed 16 laps.
The first driver to dare to mount the intermediate tires was Alonso at the controls of his A522, with about 17 minutes remaining in Free Practice 3 and, after several attempts, he climbed to first place with a record of 1: 34,836.
After the Spaniard, other riders took to the track with the intermission and the time table began to turn green and purple, although it was the same Spanish rider who lowered his time to 1:34.229.
In the last ten minutes of the session, almost all the drivers took to the track with the intermediate tire and the time table changed a lot, although nobody managed to displace Fernando Alonso from first place with a time of 1:33.836, which served him to finish ahead of Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel.
The big favorites did not want to take any risks in the wet and, after a short run by Max Verstappen, the Dutchman was ninth, behind Sergio Pérez and ahead of Carlos Sainz. With Charles Leclerc last after he didn’t even mount the intermediate compound.
