Spanish GP: Verstappen goes fastest before rain hits in Practice 3

Max Verstappen went fastest before rain arrived in Practice 3 at the Spanish Grand Prix.

With a thunderstorm approaching, drivers rushed out on track to get some dry running on the soft tyres.

But the rush still wouldn’t be enough to prevent Verstappen from claiming P1 with a 1m13.664, a quarter of a second clear of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.

Lewis Hamilton reported poor driveability from his Mercedes but was still able to claim third ahead of the two Spaniards, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso.

George Russell followed in sixth in front of Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari. Valtteri Bottas claimed eighth as Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris completed the top 10.

Before the rain arrived, Williams’ Logan Sargeant caused a red flag after sliding off into the barrier at the final corner.

It was during that recovery that the weather turned and teams waited in the garage until conditions stabilised.

Lando Norris was the first to venture out for a lap on intermediates with the two Ferraris following a few minutes later.

But while there was definite rain falling the circuit never got properly wet, meaning the tyres only lasted a handful of laps before chunking up and degrading.

Norris headed back out on soft tyres towards the end and lap times quickly improved in the final minutes, though still a couple of seconds shy of the fully dry laps at the start of the session.

The big question now is which way will the weather go before qualifying later on Saturday.