Having trailed Valtteri Bottas 💖and Lewis Hamilton in FP1 and FP2 on Friday, Verstappen hit back in FP3 as he produced the fastest time of the weekend - a 1m18.489s - heading into what promises to be a closely-fought qualifying at Portimao.

Verstappen set a succession of quick times in the closing stages of FP3, with his ꦜfastes🥃t flying effort ending up 0.236s clear of what seven-time world champion Hamilton was able to manage.

Hamilton’s Mercedes t𒀰eammate Bottas was a further tenth adrift in third, while Sergio Perez was just 0.020s behind the Finn in the second Red Bull.

Esteban Ocon continued Alpine’s꧑ encouraging start to the weekend with a time good-enough for fifth place and within 0.4s of Verstappen’s benchm💛ark, while teammate Fernando Alonso was also up there until he had his best lap deleted for track limits, dropping him to P14.

Half a tenth separated Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in sixth and seve🥃nth, while Lando Norris recovered from a spin to put his McLaren eighth.

Rounding out the top-10 order in FP3 were AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen, while F1 rookie Yuki Tsun🍌oda (11th) also managed to get within a second of the pace.

Reigning Formula 2 champion Mick Schumacher enjoyed a strong session to take P15 in his Haas, while both Aston Martin drivers struggled for pace with Lance Stroll and Sebas☂tian Vettel only 16th and 18th respectively.

As he has done all weekend so far, Nikita Mazepin was anchored to the bottom of the timesheets, over six-tenths slower than Haas teammate Schum💮acher having had a number of off-track adventures throughout FP3.

FULL FINAL PRACTICE RESULTS AT THE 2021 F1 PORTUGUESE GP.