F1 Barcelona GP live commentary and updates - FP3
Follow along for updates from third practice at the Barcelona Grand Prix
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THAT'S A WRAP FROM FP3
Join us later for what promises to be a highly fraught qualifying session. The soft tyres clearly can't be run at maximum attack over a full lap, so the drivers who can strike the best compromise over the balance of the lap will prosper. And anyone held up in traffic will likely suffer.
Qualifying begins at 1600 local time.
The gap from fastest (Russell) to slowest (Stroll) is 4.424s.
The clock runs down and Russell remains on top by 0.214s from Piastri and 0.243s from Leclerc. Norris just another three thousandths of a second adrift in P4.
There's then a half-second gap to Hamilton, which won't please. him.
Antonelli just P7 in that session but he had to bail out of two separate push laps because of traffic.
Hulkenberg and Lindblad round out the top 10, so the pace is working out mostly as expected.
Hadjar improving with a couple of personal-best sectors. 1m16.684s. That's just over two tenths off teammate Verstappen, which is well within the bar for him being considered to be doing a good job.
Leclerc improves to 1m15.922s – that's good for P3. Hamilton is also on a push lap but it leaks away in the final sector again. 1m16.964s, no improvement on his previous best.
Hadjar joining the radio fulmination club. Understeer is the source of his agitation.
You've got to be careful when remonstrating with other drivers. Was it not Andrea de Cesaris who missed a gear while leading at Long Beach because he shook his fist at a backmarker?
Antonelli yet to improve on his previous time. He's had to bail out of one push lap because he was baulked by Stroll at Turn 1, then another when he encountered a Haas at Turn 10.
He returns to the pitlane in a state of agitation, fulminating about traffic on the radio. And now the stewards have "noted" him for "driving erratically" at Turn 2.
Verstappen improves to 1m16.434s. That's faster than Antonelli but a shake of the head from Max suggests that, rather like Shania Twain, it has left him nonplussed.
Hamilton now P4 with a 1m16.381s.
Well that didn't last long. Russell goes purple in the final two sectors to set a 1m15.679s, the fastest so far.
Then Piastri goes even faster in the final sector to clock a 1m15.893s for P2 ahead of Norris, whose 1m15.925s lap included a purple first sector.
Hulkenberg improves to 1m16.961s. That was his first push lap on a fresh set of softs, having dispensed with the mediums. Nico was fastest of all through the final sector.
Russell back out on track, Antonelli has now returned to the pits after failing to improve on his previous 1m16.500s.
And Antonelli returns to the track as we type, along with Norris.
Gasly manages to get a time on the board, 1m18.653s. He's clocked a total of 8 laps in this session but that is the first one to stay on the clock – a previous one was deleted for exceeding track limits, according to the data screen.
Russell pits after just two laps, so no improvement on his time.
Everyone on softs apart from Perez, who is still on the same set of mediums - he's done stints of 3, 4, 2 and 2 laps before his current stint.
"It's nothing which could affect us," Perez is told when he asks what happened with the other Cadillac.
Hulkenberg and Perez the most industrious drivers so far this session, with 13 laps completed each.
Well that was mercifully brief. Well done to the marshals. We're back under way and both the Mercedes are out on track again.
DRAPEAU ROUGE!
Bottas rotates his Cadillac into the gravel at the exit of Turn 10.
"I lost my brake pedals," he says on the radio. TV replay shows him riding the kerb quite aggressively at Turn 9 and then he realised quite early that he had no braking into Turn 10, downshifting to shed speed. Little wonder his car is marooned so deeply in the gravel...
Leclerc has another crack, and his first sector is a personal best but then the second and third are slower overall. 1m16.807s, not an improvement.
Russell and Antonelli pit straight after their push laps.
Hamilton is out on softs but his first push lap was so-so – 1m17.131s.
Russell goes P1 with a 1m16.258s. He was only purple in sector one – in sector two teammate Antonelli is fastest. But Antonelli's lap also tails off slightly and ends with 1m16.500s, 0.242s off Russell.
Piastri radios to say that he had no grip at all, as if the front wing was broken. Pitwall responds that this was visible in the data.
Verstappen out and starting a push lap. Sector one is purple, sector two is neat but not as quick as Leclerc, sector three is OK... 1m16.855s.
Russell out and pushing now.
This isn't going to ring the bell at the end of the lap. Two purple micro-sectors through the first half, and it looks neat, but... 1m17.281s, P3 so far and six tenths off Norris.
Piastri now out and starting a push lap.
Leclerc on a decent lap, building it nicely through the first half of the lap. Not the fastest overall through sector one but purple in a couple of the mini-sectors. Then fastest of all through sector two. Then the car doesn't want to bite at Turn 10 and it starts to get away from him. 1m16.685s.
Yes, Bortoleto goes top with 1m17.581s but Norris then flashes over the line in 1m16.609s. Purple in every sector.
Hulkenberg has improved to 1m18.255 but Norris and Bortoleto are shaping up to knock him off his perch.
Stroll, Alonso, Bortoleto, Norris, Colapinto and Leclerc now joining the fun. Soft tyres all round, except for Hulkenberg.
Bearman and Ocon now exiting the pitlane as we near the 20-minute mark.
The scarcity of cars on track really underlines the tyre quandary this weekend. Most teams willing to sacrifice track time in order to keep a good stock of tyres.
And, lo, Williams responds to the call. Sainz and Albon join the track.
Hulkenberg heads back out again, performing a practice start in the usual spot at the pitlane exit.
So 15 minutes gone in this session and only 16 timed laps accomplished in total. Hulkenberg pits so the track is empty.
Hulkenberg sets the fastest time of the day so far with his first flier on mediums, 1m18.477s. Still way off yesterday's pace.
He's now the only driver on track, Perez having headed to the pits.
That's two stints of three laps on the softs for Bottas, with a fastest time of 1m19.962s. The Porsche fraction!
F1 TV shows a replay of Perez overcooking it at Turn 9, but gathering the car back before reaching the gravel. Good job, because it's easy to end up in the barrier there.
Bottas has pitted after six laps on softs, but Hulkenberg has decided to join Perez on track.
The caveat when it comes to pace analysis is that very few teams ventured far into double figures in terms of lap count. Gasly and Lindblad were the outliers here, doing 14 and 16 laps respectively on the mediums.
Even that compound was looking pretty ugly when it came off the cars, and Pirelli's regular Friday-evening debrief highlighted the high levels of thermal degradation being experienced this weekend. It predicts two pitstops per car for the race, maybe even three.
Among the other interesting wrinkles from yesterday was the long run pace, where Mercedes (Russell) and Ferrari (Leclerc) were faster on average. Both those cars running mediums for that. Red Bull (Verstappen) and McLaren (Norris) were slower on softs. Norris actually the thick end of half a second a lap slower than Russell on average.
So McLaren has the one-lap pace but the Mercedes makes lighter weather of race pace.
By: Stuart Codling
