FP3: Leclerc leads Verstappen in rain-hit final practice at Marina Bay

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in a rain-curtailed final practice session for the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen half a second off in P2 for Red Bull.

The clock began to tick down from 60 minutes at the start of FP3 but only the Safety Car was allowed to turn laps of the soaked Singapore circuit as the pit exit remained closed. The rain did subside after around 10 minutes, but conditions were still deemed unsuitable for F1 cars to start lapping.

Trackside marshals continued to sweep the track of standing water and it was soon announced that the pit exit would open to let cars out at 1830 local time, with half of the session left to play.

READ MORE: Ferrari relishing three-way fight with Red Bull and Mercedes for Singapore GP honours

The AlphaTauri drivers emerged first, several joining them on wet tyres for the next 10 minutes, after which Max Verstappen donned intermediate tyres and began to set the pace. Soon others would follow suit and times would tumble, with Charles Leclerc eventually taking top spot with a time of 1m 57.782s.

Leclerc’s lap bumped Red Bull's Verstappen down to second by 0.526s, Carlos Sainz finishing third and another half a second back in the other Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso took fourth for Alpine, six-tenths off his compatriot Sainz, while Sergio Perez rounded out the top five for Red Bull.

Lance Stroll's post-chequered flag flying lap put him sixth, team mate Sebastian Vettel seven-tenths off in P8, with Alpine's Esteban Ocon splitting the Aston Martins.

George Russell finished ninth as Mercedes were somewhat anonymous in FP3, Lewis Hamilton finishing 12th. Between them were Daniel Ricciardo in 10th for McLaren and Kevin Magnussen in 11th for Haas.

Pierre Gasly eventually dropped down to P13 despite some quick wet-tyred laps, his team mate Yuki Tsunoda 15th in the other AlphaTauri.

Mick Schumacher split the AlphaTauris, shrugging off an improperly fit right-rear tyre during a switch to inters earlier in the session. Lando Norris posted 16th for McLaren, over four seconds off the pace.

Williams' Alex Albon was next on the leaderboard in 17th, his struggling team mate Nicholas Latifi rounding out the standings over 1.5s away, while Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu finished 18th and 19th respectively.

Will rain shake up the order in qualifying? Head to F1.com at 2100 local time to see how the fight for pole pans out.

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