The first twenty minutes only saw four times on the board, two of them from drivers who had had their weekends disrupted - Lance Stroll, who had suffered a suspension failure in the first session and missed the second session completely, and Franco Colapinto, who had damaged his Alpine in a crash at the final corner in the tricky conditions.
With the track still dusty, others started coming out and the two Aston Martins came close to colliding as Lance Stroll failed to notice Fernando Alonso rapidly closing on him, but the session was soon stopped after the Cadillac of Sergio Perez came to a standstill with its rear brakes on fire. The session restarted with just over half an hour to go. Lando Norris set the early benchmark before Lewis Hamilton bettered him by mere thousandths. Charles Leclerc was next to top the timesheets, well ahead of his team mate, while Kimi Antonelli ran wide and had his first timed lap deleted for track limits. Nevertheless, the Italian was soon on the pace, splitting the Ferraris at the top.
As the session drew toward its conclusion, the track seemed to ramp up as first Antonelli then Lando Norris took top spot. The two Ferraris were out of sync, coming out later than most, and Hamilton soon took top spot before Norris on a second flying lap snatched the position back.
Free Practice 3:
1: Norris
2: Hamilton
3: Antonelli
4: Leclerc
5: Piastri
6: Russell
7: Verstappen
8: Hadjar
9: Lawson
10: Hulkenberg
11: Bortoleto
12: Gasly
13: Lindblad
14:Colapinto
15: Ocon
16: Bearman
17: Alonso
18: Stroll
19: Bottas
20: Sainz
21: Albon
22: Perez
A quiet start to qualifying saw Carlos Sainz run wide on his first flying lap, while the Ferraris initially headed out on medium tyres and were well up on the times set by the teams in the lower order. Lewis Hamilton set a time good enough to go top, before dropping down the order as other front runners set their times on softs, while Charles Leclerc had to have a cool-down lap after his first time was deleted for track limits. Lando Norris put his McLaren atop the timesheets ahead of Max Verstappen and Hamilton, while Nico Hulkenberg finished an impressive sixth in the Audi, ahead of both George Russell and Oscar Piastri.
Fernando Alonso showed that the upgrades to the Aston Martin worked, making it through to the second session at the expense of the Haas of Oliver Bearman, although Lance Stroll couldn't match his team mate. Both Williams and both Cadillacs also failed to make the cut, while both Ferraris managed to make it through the first session using just medium tyres.
A spin for Isack Hadjar brought out yellow flags early in the second session, compromising his session and the first runs of others. With the first times set, Lewis Hamilton was top from Kimi Antonelli and his old rival Max Verstappen, but the Mercedes driver had to go again after his time was deleted for track limits.
As the second session drew to a close, there were plenty of green and purple sectors being set. Hadjar more than made amends for his earlier spin, taking top spot but as the track continued to evolve he was pipped by Lando Norris, with Leclerc and Hamilton also going faster than the Red Bull. Despite improving on his earlier run, Alonso couldn't do better than 16th and was joined by the Alpines, the sole remaining Haas of Esteban Ocon, Gabriel Bortoleto's Audi and Liam Lawson in the Racing Bull in taking no further part in qualifying.
The first runs in the final session saw a repeat of Hamilton versus Norris, with Lewis getting the better of the McLaren. George Russell could only manage seventh on his first run ahead of only Hadjar, Arvid Lindblad and the Audi of Nico Hulkenberg. With Lewis having saved an extra set of softs, he looked in prime place for pole.
The Ferraris couldn't improve on their earlier times but there was late drama as Verstappen made a rare mistake, spinning on his final run and compromising the laps for Antonelli and Russell. The McLarens weren't affected by the yellow flags having left it late to leave the pits and Lando Norris snatched pole from Lewis, denying him his first pole for a full race for Ferrari. Had Hamilton managed to stay top, he would have become the oldest polesitter since Mario Andretti at Monza in 1982 where he thrilled the tifosi with his cameo appearances replacing the injured Didier Pironi. Further yellows were shown as Russell's Mercedes came to a halt at turn 1, causing further headscratching at Mercedes over their reliability.
1: Norris
2: Hamilton
3: Leclerc
4: Antonelli
5: Piastri
6: Verstappen
7: Russell
8: Hadjar
9: Lindblad
10: Hulkenberg
11: Lawson
12: Gasly
13: Colapinto
14: Bortoleto
15: Ocon
16: Alonso
17: Bearman
18: Sainz
19: Albon
20: Stroll
21: Bottas
22: Perez