George Russell set the best time of the Australian Grand Prix weekend so far late on in final practice after a red flag caused by his Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Kimi Antonelli crashing heavily.

Pre-season title favourite Russell had been 13th entering the 15 minutes of the hour-long session but looked destined to go fastest until Antonelli's off.

That came at Turn 2 as Antonelli attempted to get on the power exiting the left-right at the start of the lap, where he took more of the exit kerb than on his previous laps and ended up being spat out into the right-hand barrier.

Kimi Antonelli into the barrier! 😱

Here's the sizeable crash which ended the Mercedes driver's FP3 👇#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/ZC1PrM1JE0

The impact was significant enough to require the medical car to be deployed and while Antonelli was OK - he walked to the garage under the red flag - the extent of damage to his car suggests Mercedes will be up against it to repair it in time for qualifying at 4pm local time.

But a quick recovery job from the marshals did allow for four minutes of running to take place at the end of the session, and it was in this spell that Russell set his best time.

A 1m19.053s obliterated not just the previous-best FP3 time but also the previous benchmark from Friday's FP2 session, and ultimately proved out of reach for any of the competition.

Lewis Hamilton came closest, but his 1m19.669s was more than six tenths off. Hamilton's Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc - who spent much of the session at the head of the order - was third fastest and the only other driver inside a second of Russell's best.

Oscar Piastri appeared to have the upper hand in the intra-team battle at McLaren. He ended FP3 fourth fastest, while reigning F1 champion Lando Norris was more than three tenths further back in eighth.

Between them were the Red Bulls - Isack Hadjar lapping marginally faster than Max Verstappen - and Antonelli.

Gabriel Bortoleto was an encouraging ninth for Audi and had three tenths in hand over Haas's Ollie Bearman in 10th.

Antonelli's crash brought out one of two red flags in a session that had already started 20 minutes late owing to barrier repairs following a crash in the earlier Formula 3 sprint race.

Carlos Sainz caused the other, as his and Williams's difficult start to the weekend continued when his FW47 slowed while he was towards the end of his outlap.

Sainz attempted to crawl back to the pitlane but ground to a halt at the entry. Having remained in the car at first, Sainz eventually climbed out under a virtual safety car which was subsequently upgraded to a red flag.

But his one-lap tally still wasn't the session's lowest.

Lance Stroll didn't make it out on track at all, with Aston Martin saying before FP3 that work on the Honda power unit had "caused a delay" in his car being rebuilt and later declaring he would take no part in the session due to a suspected internal combustion engine issue.

Fernando Alonso did at least complete 20 laps in what was a relatively smooth session for the other Aston Martin.

He was 18th of the 20 cars to set a time, and thought he was a second away from Alex Albon (who also stopped on track briefly in the other Williams) Alonso was eight tenths up on Valtteri Bottas, who was the faster of the two Cadillac drivers.

FP3 times

1 George Russell (Mercedes) 1m19.053s
2 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.616s
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.774s
4 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +1.034s
5 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +1.084s
6 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +1.144s
7 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +1.271s
8 Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.390s
9 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +1.406s
10 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.725s
11 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +1.785s
12 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.837s
13 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.930s
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +2.014s
15 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +2.018s
16 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +2.360s
17 Alex Albon (Williams) +2.611s
18 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 3.667s
19 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +4.461s
20 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +5.344s
21 Carlos Sainz (Williams) No time
22 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) No time