Due to the bad weather present on the Marina Bay circuit, the third practice session began on time, but without the FIA enabling the possibility of going out to spin the track.
This finally changed by reaching the median mark now, at which point, with no rain falling, the drivers were finally given the go-ahead to leave their garages and start discovering the track in totally different conditions to those experienced on Friday in the two free practices.
Pierre Gasly was the first to start when the track was opened and set an initial time of 2m09.894s with full wet tyres, although intermediate tires soon began to be seen, with Max Verstappen being the first to use them.
The reigning champion and comfortable leader of the current championship, who could seal the title this Sunday, achieved an initial lap of 2m06s872s that later improved to 2m03s272s and in his next attempt he reached 2m02s098s, followed at that time by Gasly and Sergio Pérez, who He started with a time of 2m03s819 to be third.
Well into the final ten minutes, Charles Leclerc and Verstappen were exchanging fastest laps. The Ferrari man was placed in front with 2m00s983 to displace the Red Bull from the top, but only by a few seconds, since Verstappen would follow him with 1m59s456 to retake the first position.
Then Leclerc would take the reference up to 1m58s899s and in his next step across the finish line Verstappen this time could not displace him, remaining only 20 thousandths of a second, while Pérez returned to third place with 1m59s526s, six tenths off the lead.
With two minutes to go before the checkered flag, Leclerc lowered his mark again with a lap of 1m57s782 that would definitely be the best of the third practice, since Verstappen again could not with the Monegasque after lowering his personal time but only to be in the middle second.
Carlos Sainz signed the third best time, although one second behind his Ferrari teammate, followed by Fernando Alonso, with Pérez in fifth place after having to abort due to yellow flags caused by Gasly one last attempt that could have left him third for what Seen in midterms.
Lance Stroll finished sixth, ahead of Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel, George Russell and Daniel Ricciardo, who completed the top ten finishers.
