Red Bull driver Sergio Perez set the fastest time in the third and final training before qualifying for the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.
The start of FP3 was delayed by 15 minutes due to fender repairs in Turn 1. The Tecpro seams protecting the exterior of the T1 were carelessly rearranged by stacking multiple cars in the old Formula 2 sprint race.
With the green light finally, Lance Stroll raced directly from Aston Martin, with Mercedes pairing Lewis Hamilton and George Russell also making an early appearance after an eventful Friday.
Mercedes tried to make the most of the last chance to try out some much-needed changes to the setup before qualifying in a sunny, dry hour-long session.
Twelve minutes was also his first in the group thanks to Mercedes, with Russell continuing to jump hard and stopping the clocks with a 47.256 minute slug. This time he was quickly overtaken by Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, with the latter leading with a time of 1 minute 44.661 seconds after Sainz briefly touched down.
As is often the case, Red Bull came up short with most players, with Sergio Perez breaking the top three before leading by 1 metre 44.416 seconds before the 25-minute mark when Max Verstappen will make his debut around the same time.
Verstappen's first lap time wasn't too bad, just half a tenth behind Perez after turning purple in the first sector, but not as good as Ferrari's subsequent volley.
Just before the halfway point, Leclerc and Sainz reconfirmed their lead in the standings, with Leclerc beating Sainz in 1 minute 43.514 seconds by about half a second until Spaniard Perez moved up to second.
After a traditional mid-session break, the movement returned in the last tumultuous 15 minutes.
Verstappen finished second, closing the gap to Leclerc to just over a tenth, only for the title contender to extend it again to four-tenths of 1m43.240s.
A spin by Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas on the third actor has halted the latest wave of improvements.
Verstappen couldn't fix Leclerc after cutting the first lap of the driving, but Perez did, setting the fastest first sector on his way to 1m43.170s, 0.070sec faster than the Ferrari driver.
The Dutchman tried again in the last minutes but was stopped by a train passing in Sector Two after turning purple in the first stage, describing the traffic as "incredible".
Sainz did his best but stayed fourth, four tenths behind Perez.
McLaren had the best results with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo fifth and sixth in the final minutes, 1.2 seconds off the lead.
AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly finished seventh, followed by the first Mercedes, driven by George Russell.
Aston Martin's alpine driver Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel finished in the top ten, ahead of second alpine driver Fernando Alonso.
Hamilton dropped to 12th after suffering from a lack of rear stability, an issue that Russell also pointed out.
Lance Stroll finished 13th, followed by Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu, Haas man Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda in the second AlphaTauri.
Alex Albon was Williams' first car in 17th, ahead of Mick Schumacher, and Bottas and Nicholas Latifi were at the bottom of the list.
Aside from Bottas's spin, the session remained quiet, although Bottas also went straight into Turn 2, with Leclerc using his escape route in Turn 15.
The FP3 delay also means qualifying will be 15 minutes late and the session will now start at 6.15pm. local time.
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