Mercedes maintained its 1-2 finish in FP3 of F1 Spanish GP as Lewis Hamilton led Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
Hamilton (1m17.222s) headed the FP3 session in F1 Spanish GP at Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona with Mercedes teammate Bottas (1m17.373s) finishing 0.151s aloof with Red Bull’s Verstappen (1m17.737s) maintaining the Top 3 of practice runs.
With a new engine to help him with his cooling issues, McLaren’s Carlos Sainz (1m18.046s) slotted in fourth ahead of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez (1m18.096s) with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (1m18.193s) in sixth from AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly (1m18.211s).
The Monegasque along with Sebastian Vettel couldn’t do another quick lap due to late red flag for a heavy crash for Renault’s Esteban Ocon. Replays showed that he was taking a avoiding action for a slowing Haas’ Kevin Magnussen on the middle of the track.
Magnussen went past Ocon in the run-up to Turn 4 as the Dane then slowed down which caught the Frenchman out as he took an evading action to crash out. Naturally, the incident was put under investigation by the stewards with the session ending under red flag.
Meanwhile, the Top 10, was rounded out by Red Bull’s Alexander Albon (1m18.371s) in ninth and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m18.384s) 10th with Ocon (1m18.602s) in 11th and Vettel (1m18.707s) 12th as the other Haas of Romain Grosjean (1m18.710s) was 13th.
The Frenchman had a new engine fitted to his car too after an issue on Friday. In fact, Haas broke the curfew as they found a leak in the new engine as well to re-fit another one. Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m18.721s) slotted in 14th.
McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m18.803s) did not improve after his first run to be 15th ahead of AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat (1m18.852s), who complained of tyre issues. Haas’ Magnussen (1m18.940s) was 17th from Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi (1m19.175s) and Williams.
It was George Russell (1m19.297s) ahead of Nicholas Latifi (1m19.764s) as the later complained of being held up by Verstappen. The Canadian hit back on the Dutchman stating that the Red Bull drivers complains of being held up but he does the same now.
Here’s what drivers said after Friday of F1 Spanish GP
Here’s how F1 Spanish GP FP1 panned out
Here’s how FP1 of F1 Spanish GP panned out