F1 Spanish GP Live Commentary and Updates – FP3 & Qualifying

Leclerc is now top on a 1m12.038s, no he's not - Piastri and then Sainz beat the Monegasque as he dips into the 1m11s.

Hulkenberg goes third and Bottas fifth, with Alonso sixth. Zhou is eighth - so that's strong from the Finn.

Make that Gasly fastest. Is that special from Alpine or a problem for Perez?

It's taken Verstappen a good minute to get from his garage to the pit-exit, such was the queue and spacing going on.

Meanwhile, team-mate Perez is on a flying lap.

It was on a used soft for the Canadian so the opening gambit of a 1m13.6s won't be representative.

Now the rest of them come out to play... typically all at once and queuing!

It's Stroll who is the trailblazer and his first sector is about two-tenths down on what we will see later in the session.

Hamilton may have been fastest but running an extra set of softs will not help his cause later on.

Turn 10 was his problem area, with oversteer affecting him on run one and understeer biting on run two.

Eight-tenths off first was enough to het you eliminated. It is that close.

The cutoff was a 1m12.881s. Tsunoda cannot believe he has missed out. "No man!" he cries.

Magnussen was pushed into the bottom five late on there, but the shock of the session is RB.

Both Tsunoda and Ricciardo are knocked out, as were both Williams.

Stroll jumps out of the bottom five to go 14th, Hulkenberg follows to go 12th.

That proves true as Ocon goes ahead of both Saubers.

Piastri improves to sixth, whilst Magnussen can't beat the Saubers.

Perez will be next across the line. The cutoff may be a 1m12.7s - the Red Bull does a 1m12.4s to go sixth.

Bottas follows to go seventh and Zhou into eighth, a tenth shy of the magic number.

This is where the lap times come thick and fast. Take a deep breath...

It's a good end to the lap for Albon though, who jumps to 12th. That may not be strong enough to stay above the cutoff line.

Albon is the first to show for the final runs but his first sector time isn't setting the world alight.

Williams struggling this weekend.

McLaren statement on earlier hospitality unit fire: 

"This morning a fire was detected in our trackside Team Hub.

"The team hub was evacuated of all staff and guests, and circuit emergency services attended the scene within minutes. The circuit emergency services and local fire department have since extinguished the fire.

"One McLaren team member has been taken to hospital as a precaution, and all McLaren personnel and guests are accounted for.

"We would like to thank all the marshals and emergency services for their quick and professional response. We would also like to thank Formula 1, the FIA and our competitors who have offered to help our team and guests this weekend."

So with six minutes left, Albon, Tsunoda, Zhou, Magnussen and Sargeant are in the drop zone.

Stroll was impeded by Sargeant and the Williams will likely get a penalty for that.

Ricciardo jumps out of the bottom five with his latest lap but is only 15th.

Hamilton, Piastri and Perez are in the 1m13s and currently behind Gasly and Hulkenberg.

Both the Alpine and Haas drivers have posted seriously impressive opening efforts.

Leclerc is next and goes top by 0.049s, whilst Sainz can manage only fourth.

Russell is fifth and the only other driver into the 1m12s.

Verstappen is flying! 

What a lap to get underway with - a 1m12.306. That is just good enough to beat Norris, who has also crossed the line, by 0.080s.

Now there's a rush to get on track with 12 minutes to go and the cars queue at the end of the pits. Let's see what the big hitters can do.

Ricciardo goes into the 1m13s to go top, faster than RB team-mate Tsunoda.

They are split by Stroll.

It's a 1m14.334 to get us started, with Sargeant immediately faster by 0.033s.

The first driver to show is Zhou. The Sauber driver needs a positive result today.

Predictions in the comments and on our socials please. Good luck deciding this week!

It's an interesting precedent to set with drivers creating contact in a practice session.

Anyway, we are three minutes away from Q1.

Leclerc also gets a reprimand. The stewards must be in a very good mood because it looked a stonewall penalty.

While we wait for that, FP3 gave us an insight into what the grid could look like at the end of the upcoming hour.

The top four was separated by just 0.074s.

Stroll has been reprimanded for colliding with Hamilton. We await news of Leclerc.

It feels like a bit of a let-off for the Aston Martin driver.

As I write that, decisions are incoming...