Verstappen completes hat trick of practice sessions in Jeddah

Max Verstappen led the final practice session of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix ahead of team mate Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso.

Red Bull elected to split both cars again on tyres at the beginning of the session, as Verstappen went on the Hard tyres while Perez went on the Soft.

The Mexican led his teammate in the initial runs by 0.329s, ahead of both Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

Verstappen later switched to the Soft tyres and found more time, setting a 1:28.756s to go 0.371s quicker than Perez.

Alonso managed to set his quickest lap towards the end of the session, improving to third on the Soft tyre but still nearly a second off Verstappen.

Traffic was once again a problem for the drivers, with race control noting an incident between Verstappen and Lando Norris that happened towards the end of the session.

The McLaren driver was on a fast lap when he encountered the slow Red Bull at the high speed Turn 9, however the stewards elected to take no further action.

Ferrari struggle as McLaren show pace

Ferrari appeared to struggle in the final session with Carlos Sainz finishing 10th fastest, while Charles Leclerc made a late improvement to sixth fastest.

The team ran on the Medium tyres in the opening stages of the session, matching their pace yesterday during the race runs.

But when they switched to the Soft tyres they were over a second off Verstappen, and struggled to get time in amongst the traffic.

Leclerc found a gap when the clock struck zero, completing his final lap which put him sixth fastest ahead of both McLaren's.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri appeared to have better sessions, with the Briton finishing seventh and Australian eighth fastest.