Pérez leads Leclerc and Sainz in final practice at the Monaco Grand Prix

Sergio Pérez led the third and final free practice session of the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix as he clocked the fastest lap time in the dying minutes of the session.

Charles Leclerc finished in second position, just 0.041 seconds slower than the Mexican driver. Leclerc’s Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz finished in third position, 0.370 seconds behind the leader.

Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly rounded off the top five positions at the end of the session.

The third free practice session started in sunny conditions with air temperatures at 27 degrees C and track temperatures at 51 degrees C.

The softest tyres in the Pirelli range of tyres has been designated for this race – white-striped hard compound tyres (C3), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C4), red-striped soft compound tyres (C5).

Nicholas Latifi was the first driver out on the track and set the first timed lap of 1m19.375s. Fernando Alonso went to the top of the time charts in the initial exchanges with a lap time of 1m14.757s.

Valtteri Bottas who lost a lot of time in Friday practice due to reliability issues slotted into second position behind Alonso. But the two Ferrari drivers, Leclerc and Sainz , who were quick around this classic street circuit on Friday slotted into first and second positions.

With thirty minutes of the session gone, Leclerc lead from Pérez, Verstappen and Sainz. The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, with setup tweaks after a tough Friday were still languishing in seventh and tenth positions.

With twenty minutes to go, Gasly and Lando Norris slotted into third and fourth positions behind Leclerc and Pérez.

With less then fifteen minutes to go, Sainz and Verstappen went to the top of the time sheets. Lance Stroll made contact with the barriers and suffered damage to his front-wing.

There was frantic action in the dying minutes of the session with several incidents were the drivers will be investigated for impeding.

In the final minutes of the session, it was a duel between leclerc and Pérez for the top spot on the time charts. Pérez finally ended the session on top with a lap time of 1m12.476s.

2022 Monaco Grand Prix Third Practice Results: