F1 qualifying LIVE: Monaco Grand Prix FP3 updates as Charles Leclerc aims to land pole over Max Verstappen

Sainz fastest in P3, by +0.643 from Alonso. Verstappen out now too.

Leclerc tops the standings now, Sainz +0.106 back.

Promising for Ferrari so far after 13 minutes of P3.

Here we go then, a crucial hour to get ready for qualification. Every pole is vital, but especially in Monaco.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner: “They’re not allowed [to complain about the car], yesterday we didn’t have an optimum setup, a lot of work last night. A confidence track, you have to give your drivers confidence.

“You have to treat each race by race, it’s finding compromise between one-lap performance, which is a premium here, sacrificing a long-run maybe.

“The most telling thing in the first session was one lap on the medium and then he locked up, tyres will get better with each lap. I think it’s the tyres, but also the circuit ramping up the drivers. They’re edging towards the barriers this session. It’s about going with the circuit.”

George Russell has admitted he still has “a lot to improve” despite his impressive start to life at Mercedes, which has seen the 24-year-old take an early lead over team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the championship standings.

Despite Mercedes’ early struggles, Russell has performed well during his first season with the team and secured a podium finish at the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend. It continued his streak of consecutive top-five finishes to open the season but despite his consistency the British driver said he is not yet the complete “package”, at least compared to seven-time world champion Hamilton.

When reflecting upon his start to the season, Russell told reporters ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix: “I just focus on myself and try and do the best job possible – and wherever that leaves me, I’ll sort of review from there.

“I believe in myself but I’ve still got a lot to improve. I don’t feel like I’m truly optimising the package and, compared to Lewis, I’ve still got room to improve in a number of aspects.”

The seven-time world champion, 37, was told in Miami earlier this month that his nose stud – which he says cannot be easily removed – must be taken out for the seventh round of the campaign in Monte Carlo.

But Formula One’s ruling body, the FIA, who are enforcing the jewellery clampdown on safety grounds, have granted Hamilton a new deadline of June 30 – three days before the British Grand Prix.

Speaking on Friday, Hamilton said: “Honestly, I feel like there’s just way too much time and energy being given to this.

The 91-year-old Briton, now in Portugal, told Reuters a “silly, tiny little incident” had caused a lot of aggravation as he and his family tried to leave Sao Paulo by private plane on Wednesday night.

“I haven’t had any publicity lately and I thought I ought to do something to get some,” he joked in a telephone conversation.

Mercedes’ struggles with ‘porpoising’ have returned at the Monaco Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton complained that he was “f****** losing my mind” due to the “bouncing” he was experiencing in his car.

Hamilton had arrived in Monte Carlo on the back of his best performance of the year at the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend and with Mercedes confident they had resolved the majority of the performance issues which have so far plagued their season.

But the team’s problems continued during the opening practice session on Friday as a frustrated Hamilton complained on his team radio: “It is so bouncy out here, mate. I am f****** losing my mind.”

Through the lens of a photographer, some F1 tracks are inescapably ugly.

Silverstone, for instance, is an old RAF airfield that’s flat and featureless like a grey desert, broken up by patches of grass as if someone once tried to spruce it up a bit.

Others are irresistibly beautiful, like Austria’s Red Bull Ring, a track swaddled by forest, with sweeping bends which seem to rise into the Alps behind them.