Esteban Ocon was first on the track and completed a lap, clocking a time of 1m 31.125s on the medium track, which proved to be enough to give him an early lead over Lewis on the soft tyres. Hamilton.

The Ferrari duo then set their first lap on the soft tyres, with Carlos Sainz the quicker of the two with a time of 1m 30.748s, a tenth faster than Charles Leclerc’s first lap Three, as the Monaco recovers from Friday’s FP2 crash.

Ocon then passed them in their second Tour, but was beaten by Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly at the same venue.

Then there was Red Bull, who grabbed headlines for their first attempt at the soft boot. Sergio Perez’s 1m29.266s was quickly beaten by Max Verstappen’s 1m28.963s – about a second short of FP2’s final pace.

Leclerc beat Red Bull in 1m29.057s, also on the soft tyre, to within a tenth of Verstappen’s earlier benchmark, which was held for about five minutes until Perez’s 1m28.641 scored in seconds.

Fernando Alonso was third on the medium, just three tenths behind Perez, but Verstappen then copied FP2’s pace in 1m 27.969s to waste Perez’s time. In the reeds.

Sainz’s next hot lap closed the gap on Verstappen, with the Spaniard’s 1m 28.125s coming within two-tenths of the pace as the drivers reported rapidly improving track conditions as the opening day Grip proved to be very important.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23

Photography: Alexander Trienitz / motorsport pictures

Verstappen then added to his advantage with 1m27.669s, which remained untouched for much of the mid-session throughout the session as the team tried to catch the long simulation they had missed following Leclerc’s late crash during FP2.

The Dutchman then extended his advantage with 15 minutes remaining, less than a tenth below his benchmark as he opted to resume his purple division chase exploits in the final quarter of the game.

His improvement continued, and as the race entered the final 10 minutes, he shaved another 0.06 seconds off his best time, putting him more than 0.6 seconds ahead of the rest.

Perez finished with a time of 1m 28.050s before he was beaten by Leclerc who moved to second with a time of 1m 27.941s.

Sainz’s time held to second for most of the race, which put him fourth overall and nearly 0.3 seconds behind the midfielder. The Ferrari driver recorded the most laps in FP3 running time, with 27 laps at the Miami Speedway.

Ocon beat Gasly by 0.02 seconds for fifth, while Valtteri Bottas was fastest to move ahead of Nico Hulkenberg seven.

Alex Albon, ninth fastest ahead of FP1 headliner George Russell, complained that the Mercedes’ balance was “okay, but just struggling with overall speed” and reported a “jump” at Turn 2 – — that’s what he experienced in FP2 on Friday.

Kevin Magnussen finished 11th ahead of Alonso, finishing a strong race on home soil for the Haas team, as Hamilton was 13th and Mercedes struggled in contention.

F1 Miami Grand Prix FP3 Results