A final flurry of improvements on the soft tyres ended with Norris sitting at the top of the timing screen – his tidy 1m 11.799s effort just under a tenth up on the recovering Leclerc and another tenth clear of second practice pace-setter Russell.

Hamilton made it two Ferraris in the top four, from Verstappen, Alonso and the other Silver Arrows machine of Kimi Antonelli, with Piastri only able to place eighth – over Williams duo Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon – after making it back out on track.

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Racing Bulls pair Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson sandwiched Pierre Gasly’s Alpine in positions 11 to 13, followed by Stroll, Haas pair Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon, and Franco Colapinto, who put together a cleaner final practice session.

Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto were 18th and 19th respectively for Sauber, with Yuki Tsunoda bringing up the rear after spending most of the session in the Red Bull garage while mechanics worked away on his car – the Japanese racer also noted for a red flag infringement along with Bortoleto, with the pair to be investigated post-session.

Drivers and teams will now regroup in the paddock to dig through the data and make any final set-up adjustments before returning to the track in Qualifying – the grid decider due to get under way at 1600 local time.