Norris topped the final practice session from McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri as the squad looked in control in the final practice hour.

Both drivers appeared to enjoy cars that were fast and settled, a step above Max Verstappen who was third fastest.

RB too showed well, both Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda firm features in the top 10 throughout the session.

In the minutes prior it commencing, McLaren mechanics were working on the floor of Norris’ car.

The Brit completed an installation lap on a set of hard tyres, as did Piastri, heat cycling the tyres ahead of Sunday’s race.

The pair then headed back out on medium rubber, again completing slow laps and returning to the garage.

Another 10 minutes then elapsed before they returned to the track, Norris going fastest on a set of soft tyres with Piastri second best, about half a second slower.

The Australian then spent time in the garage through the middle of the session, with attention on the rear of his MCL38.

Norris opened up on a late low fuel run with 15 minutes remaining.

It was a strong lap, two tenths faster than anyone through the first split, building on that with a compliant car through the middle of the lap.

At the line, he was almost half a second clear of the pack, with Piastri underscoring McLaren’s potential as he logged a time just 0.04s slower a minute later.

Sergio Perez was among the first on track, using one of the sets of hard tyres he’d saved from Friday’s running.

Verstappen adopted the same approach, the two Red Bull Racing drivers the only cars on track for much of the opening 15 minutes.

The Red Bull proved rapid and settled on Friday, the balance appearing to have gone backwards in the cooler conditions on Saturday.

On his late qualifying simulation, Verstappen wrestled his car in a way that Norris didn’t have to, leaving him almost three-tenths back at the end of the session.

A late lock up served only to highlight the battle the world championship leader was fighting as Perez proved underwhelming, unable to crack the top 10 to end the session only 13th.

An impressive early single-lap run from Yuki Tsunoda saw the Japanese driver go second fastest after 23 minutes.

It was a performance akin to what Ricciardo had managed in Free Practice 2 on Friday when he was eighth fastest.

The Australian mirrored his team-mate’s pace soon after to log a time 0.03s faster.

He then improved later on and remained firmly in the top 10 suggesting he, and RB in general, could be a factor come Qualifying 3 later in the day.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had contrasting sessions for Mercedes.

They were third and fourth respectively after their early low fuel running, Hamilton just under a tenth slower than Piastri and half a tenth better than his team-mate.

A second run saw Russell go fastest just after the halfway point, besting Norris by a tenth to suggest there is inherent pace in the car.

Hamilton was on track at the same time, but lost time through the middle third of the lap and a mistake in the penultimate corner left him almost seven-tenths away from his Mercedes colleague.

Another soft tyre run inside the final 20 minutes saw Hamilton improve to second best at the time, gaining some four-tenths in the process.

However, he was still down compared to his team-mate despite the track improvement, suggesting Russell was the sharper of the two Mercedes drivers.

The seven-time world champion even had a spin at Turn 9 to draw a brief yellow flag – collecting a snap of oversteer on entry before losing the rear end on exit as he applied the power.

He ended the session 10th with a car clearly not to his liking with Russell fourth fastest.

Though not reflected on the timesheets, the balance in Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari looked an improvement from Friday’s running, especially through the final sector.

However, it remained susceptible to bumps, and the exit kerb at Turn 4 which left him in the barrier yesterday.

Carlos Sainz was rapid, banking the second-best lap behind Norris’ time at the midway point, though his car displayed the same weaknesses over bumps as Leclerc’s.

Still, he remained somewhere in contention through the single-lap runs, the Spaniard fifth fastest but half a second away from the ultimate pace to suggest Ferrari is fourth fastest this weekend.

Elsewhere, Alex Albon showed well for Williams to finish the session seventh fastest from Nico Hulkenberg eighth for Haas.

Notably absent from the top 10 were both Aston Martins and both Alpine; Fernando Alonso was 14th, Lance Stroll 15th, while Pierre Gasly was only 18th and Esteban Ocon 20th.

Qualifying now follows at 16:00 local time (midnight AEST).