Championship leader Lewis Hamilton outpaced team-mate Valtteri Bottas to top the times as Mercedes dominated Saturday morning’s third and final practice at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The two ‘black
arrows’ were separated by one-tenth of a second with Max Verstappen third, for
Red Bull, half a second behind them.
Local hope Carlos
Sainz was a strong fourth for McLaren ahead of Sergio Perez, back in action for
Racing Point after missing two race weekends with Covid-19.
Charles Leclerc
maintained his progress with Ferrari in sixth place ahead of Pierre Gasly of
Alpha Tauri, Lance Stroll in the second Racing Point, Alex Albon in the second
Red Bull and Daniel Ricciardo of Renault.
Four-time champion
Sebastian Vettel was down in 12th for Ferrari as he continued to battle for
form after a torrid start to the season.
On a hot morning at
the Circuit de Catalunya, there was little early action in the dazzling
sunshine and both Mercedes and Red Bull delayed their entry until midway
through the hour.
As the early
runners set their times, the air temperature was 29 degrees and the track was
43. Grosjean was soon busy lapping following overnight work on his Haas car,
the American team having broken curfew to install engine components.
Sainz was also
running new power unit parts in his McLaren.
Mercedes joined the
fray with 30 minutes remaining and Bottas immediately topped the times ahead of
six-time champion Hamilton with Verstappen going third when Red Bull sent him
out.
Significantly, the
Dutchman was only one-tenth off the Finn’s fastest lap and very close to
Hamilton’s pace – a clear signal that Red Bull were likely to be competitive –
before Sainz split the two Mercedes men with 20 minutes remaining.
Ten minutes later,
Mercedes took softs and Hamilton restored a more familiar ‘black arrows’
one-two to the top of the times, the Briton outpacing his team-mate by just
one-tenth.
The session ended
abruptly with a red flag with two minutes remaining when Esteban Ocon swerved
and crashed in his Renault as he moved to avoid Kevin Magnussen’s decelerating
Haas exiting Turn Two.
The Frenchman, who
was unhurt and walked away, appeared to be surprised by the Dane’s slowdown in
front of him, prompting calls for a minimum lap time to be introduced to
prevent similar incidents.
