F1: Verstappen tops wet Practice 3 in Montreal

–by Mark Cipolloni–

They say rain is the great equalizer and the best drivers come to the front when it rains.

World Driving Champion Max Verstappen turned the fastest lap of 1m23.106s in his Red Bull Honda to top Practice 3 for the Canadian GP in horrible conditions.

Charles Leclerc was 2nd in the #16 Ferrari, 0.291s behind.

No one else came within a second of the best driver in the world today.

Just how good is Verstappen?

His teammate, Sergio Perez, in an identical Red Bull Honda car, was down in 17th, 2.75s slower.

Visibility is hard around here, these big, wide tires kick up a lot of spray. Max Verstappen had a good session, he found a rhythm pretty quickly.  Perez was like a duck out of water.

Fernando Alonso was third, 1.38s behind in his Aston Martin.

Kevin Magnussen was a fabulous 4th in his Haas Ferrari and Carlos Sainz Jr. rounded out the top-5 with a time he set before he wadded up his #55 Ferrari in Turn 1 and leaving Ferrari an uphill battle to fix his car in time for qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton, fastest in Practice 2 yesterday in the dry, was 10th, 1.98s back.

Verstappen is a favorite for pole in qualifying at 4:00pm ET, but the weather and red flags could play a big part in deciding the grid order for later on.

Practice 3 Results