Red Bull's Max Verstappen topped the timesheets in the final practice session for the Portuguese Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in third.
Verstappen led just after the halfway mark and improved marginally to 1m18.489s with five minutes remaining, that time seeing him eclipse Hamilton by 0.236s and Bottas by 0.331s. Bottas jumped to third late in the session to push Red Bull's Sergio Perez down to fourth – through the Mexican was just 0.020s off the Finn by the end.
Ferrari was pleased with floor upgrades they brought in for Friday practice but reverted to their Imola-spec on Saturday, as was the plan. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz lapped at a competitive pace with the former finishing sixth and the latter seventh.
McLaren's Lando Norris wasn't so confident after his Friday running and spun at Turn 14 late in this session. Yet he still finished eighth while teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who was left beaming after a successful Friday, took 12th in FP3.
Standings:-
| 2021 F1 PORTUGUESE GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (3) | ||||
| POS | DRIVER | NAT. | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | NED | Red Bull Racing | 1m18.489s |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | GBR | Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team | 1m18.725s |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | FIN | Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team | 1m18.820s |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | MEX | Red Bull Racing | 1m18.840s |
| 5 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | Alpine F1 Team | 1m18.860s |
| 6 | Charles Leclerc | MON | Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow | 1m19.001s |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | ESP | Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow | 1m19.050s |
| 8 | Lando Norris | GBR | McLaren F1 Team | 1m19.272s |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda | 1m19.374s |
| 10 | Kimi Raikkonen | FIN | Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen | 1m19.415s |
| 11 | Yuki Tsunoda | JPN | Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda | 1m19.485s |
| 12 | Daniel Ricciardo | AUS | McLaren F1 Team | 1m19.582s |
| 13 | Antonio Giovinazzi | ITA | Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen | 1m19.588s |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | ESP | Alpine F1 Team | 1m19.949s |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | CAN | Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team | 1m20.007s |
| 16 | Mick Schumacher | GER | Uralkali Haas F1 Team | 1m20.033s |
| 17 | George Russell | GBR | Williams Racing | 1m20.127s |
| 18 | Sebastian Vettel | GER | Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team | 1m20.214s |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | CAN | Williams Racing | 1m20.681s |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | RUS | Uralkali Haas F1 Team | 1m20.690s |
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