Charles Leclerc made it a trio of P1’s in Practice after going fastest again in the third session at the Spanish Grand Prix.
As teams completed their final preparations ahead of qualifying, the Monegasque couldn’t quite match his best time from Friday but still set a 1m19.772s to lead Max Verstappen by less than a tenth of a second.
After a strong Friday, Mercedes remain competitive in Barcelona with George Russell a tenth-and-a-half behind Leclerc in third with teammate Lewis Hamilton in fourth.
That’s a wrap for #SpanishGP practice, with George P3 and Lewis P4 in #FP3! ? Next up, Quali! ? pic.twitter.com/wDY7Adrwrp
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 21, 2022
Carlos Sainz may have the home support but he was over three-tenths off the pace in fifth and may end up in a battle with Sergio Perez for the minor places in the top six.
Despite a disrupted Friday after floor damage, Lando Norris put McLaren at the head of the midfield in seventh ahead of Kevin Magnussen in eighth.
The Dane’s Haas teammate Mick Schumacher saw his session ended early by a brake fire which then spread across the right rear of his car once he came to a stop in the pit lane.
With mechanics still trying to cool the burned remains as FP3 ended, there is a question mark over whether the German will be able to take part in qualifying later on Saturday.
Mick Schumacher’s brakes are feeling the Barcelona heat! ?
The fire has been put out and he’s back in the garage#SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/rPacCdgIO4
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 21, 2022
Valtteri Bottas was back on track after an engine issue lost him track time on Friday, and the Finn was competitive in P9 as Esteban Ocon completed the top 10.
Highlighting how competitive the grid is this year, less than 1.5s covered the top 14 drivers down to Zhou Guanyu, who was only 0.8s behind Norris in P7.
In that group looking to reach Q3 was Daniel Ricciardo in 11th, ahead of Sebastian Vettel who was only P12 in the Aston Martin with its controversial upgrades.
After a very competitive Friday, home favourite Fernando Alonso slumped to 13th in FP3.
Further down, the two Williams’ were once again the slowest cars albeit Alex Albon was eight-tenths faster than teammate Nicholas Latifi.
The stricken Schumacher and Pierre Gasly brought up the standings after a heat shield issue caused the Frenchman’s car to overheat on his initial out-lap.
Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
How the final practice session played out ?
Qualifying: ?#SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/0wf8nnXttK
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 21, 2022
