Lewis Hamilton seized the high ground heading into qualifying by leading a disrupted final practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.
As teams completed a series of low-fuel runs on the soft tyre, the world champion posted a 1m16.568s to sit over half a second clear of the field.
Helping the Briton’s advantage was an off for teammate Valtteri Bottas, as the Finn spun into the gravel with cold tyres at Turn 5 on his first out-lap of the day.
The marshals would recover his car to the pits in the subsequent red flag, but it would put Bottas on the back foot as he missed around half an hour of running.
As for Ferrari, they still have no answer for the pace of Mercedes in the second and third sector.
Charles Leclerc took second, fractionally ahead of Bottas with Sebastian Vettel fourth as the three drivers were covered by less than a tenth of a second.
Interestingly, however, Haas driver Romain Grosjean was also within a tenth of the Monegasque in fifth, either indicating Ferrari have pace in reserve or the Frenchman is very fast indeed.
His teammate Kevin Magnussen was sixth as Max Verstappen saw his best lap compromised by a slow Racing Point at the final chicane, leaving the Dutchman down in seventh.
A big battle is developing for the final few places in the top 10 with Alexander Albon eighth for Toro Rosso, Kimi Raikkonen ninth in the Alfa Romeo and Carlos Sainz P10 for McLaren.
Down the order problems continue at Renault with Nico Hulkenberg 12th and Daniel Ricciardo only 17th for the French manufacturer.
Also at Racing Point, the strong pace from Baku has evaporated with Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll 13th and 15th respectively, either side of Pierre Gasly in 14th.
The final order wasn’t fully representative, however, as George Russell caused a second red flag with four minutes to go, spinning into the wall at Turn 4 in his Williams.
Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
