Naturalness arguments for weak-scale supersymmetry favor supersymmetric partners of the third generation quarks with masses not too far from those of their Standard Model counterparts. Top or bottom squarks with masses less than or around one TeV can also give rise to direct pair production rates at the LHC that can be observed in the data sample recorded by the ATLAS detector. The paper presents recent ATLAS results from searches for direct stop and sbottom pair production, using the data collected during the LHC Run 2.