While most eyes in Sepang were fixed on the asphalt’s temperature, Kimi Antonelli showed he can stay just as cool under pressure. The Mercedes rookie topped third practice with a 1:36.302, nearly three tenths clear of Max Verstappen (1:36.580), who’s saving his soft-tyre runs for a moment that actually matters. Isack Hadjar took third, George Russell fourth — proof that Mercedes have moved on from talking about their “toughest Friday” to actually backing it up with lap times.

The session wasn’t exactly smooth. A red flag halted proceedings before the midway point after debris from Ollie Bearman’s Haas littered the circuit, queuing a line of cars in the pit lane for the restart. While everyone else fought over tenths, Lewis Hamilton simply waved — stuck behind Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bulls at the worst possible moment of his lap.

One small but telling footnote for the weekend: Aston Martin looked visibly sharper, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both climbing the order — maybe proof that Alonso’s “fire inside” is burning for real. Qualifying is set for 16:00 local time.

Source: Formula1.com (https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/fp3-antonelli-goes-fastest-from-verstappen-and-hadjar-during-final-practice-at-bahrain-gp-in-malaysia.3qqJsnpvMeTq5CDBeUwS6R)