F1 Spanish GP Live Commentary and Updates – FP3 & Qualifying
Saturday's action from the 10th round of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Friday's action set up an intriguing battle with little to separate pace-setters Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes from the chasing pack, with McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari all in close pursuit.
Causing a surprise in the top 10 were both Alpine drivers, with Pierre Gasly fourth and Esteban Ocon ninth.
FP3 will get under way at 12:30pm local time (11:30am BST) with qualifying following at 4pm local time (3pm BST).
Live Text
FP3 was a close-run affair, with Sainz on top ahead of Norris and Ferrari team-mate Leclerc.
But it was antics on track that was the most eye-catching.
Hello and welcome back to coverage of Spanish Grand Prix Saturday!
Qualifying is just around the corner and what a session we could be in store for.
There is plenty to come before qualifying so make sure you keep across the website for updates. That is us done for FP3 though, thank you for joining us.
Check out the full results and report from final practice here!
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Albon's time for eighth in the Williams went under the radar at the end of the session there - that's a pretty outstanding effort given where the team was yesterday.
Definitely a veer to the left from Leclerc in that incident.
It's very, very similar to the Ferrari of Kubica on BMW's Vanthoor last week at Le Mans.
Practice starts - which GP Lambiase described as the "most representative" of the weekend so far to Verstappen - have been completed and the cars are back in the pits. At least no one can drive into anyone else now!
Confirmation that Leclerc and Norris are to be investigated after the session.
Without premeditating any stewards verdicts, that was really poor from Leclerc - similar to Stroll earlier.
Norris and Verstappen may land themselves in bother for holding up Sainz, but I'd expect penalties for Stroll and Leclerc for their road rage.
Anyway, Sainz finishes top of the pile, with Norris and Leclerc third.
Norris: "He just drove into me."
There will be penalties before qualifying, almost certainly because all of that was quite ridiculous.
Some more road rage, this time from Leclerc who felt as though he was impeded by Norris. They definitely collided.
Norris and Verstappen were then dawdling into Turn 10 and Sainz had to take avoiding action.
Cars will return to the circuit for start preparations before practice starts on the grid - the last chance to practice before tomorrow's race.
Having said that, Leclerc looks like he is starting a fast lap...
After that excitement, there are just three minutes left of the session.
The first half was a slow burn but we now have a tantalising qualifying set up for us.
NO!
He lost time in the final sector and ends up third, 0.037s off Sainz.
This is so, so tight.
Leclerc is on a flying lap and is, well... flying.
He may have run wide at Turn 10 but he has two purple sectors. Will he take top spot?
The incident between Hamilton and Stroll is to be investigated after the session.
Verstappen set three green sectors but could only go third - the top three now separated by 0.074s.
Perez is seven-tenths adrift down on seventh.
Sainz goes fastest with a 1m13.013, that's 0.030s faster than Norris.
Russell has set his quali lap and ended up 0.121s behind Norris. Next up is the Ferrari duo, led by Sainz.
Contact between Stroll and Hamilton after the Aston Martin driver was impeded.
It seemed a bit needless from Stroll on the outside of Turn 5, though he was held up. Carbon fibre flew but both have continued.
Hamilton is fastest in S2 and is about to come across the line - it's not a great final sector as he misses out on the top spot by three-tenths.
That was the first real qualifying attack from Norris there. Hamilton is warming up for his attempt but as others filter through, we should dip into the 1m12s.
Across the line he comes and he goes fastest with a 1m13.043s.
That was on his second lap and also had a puff of gravel in the last sector. Not as bad as his team-mate's own moment entering the penultimate corner though - Piastri slotting into seventh after losing time.
Norris is now up in sector one - but not the best S1 of the session so far.
Into the second split and he goes purple - now three-tenths up on Russell's lap from earlier...
A big snap of oversteer at Turn 1 and Piastri backs out straight away.
Norris backed out of his first lap in annoyance after encountering some traffic at Turn 7. He pitted and comes back on track.
Twenty minutes to go and both McLarens have pitted and returned to the track on softs. By Piastri's out-lap, this will be a quali sim.
“Verstappen’s long run down at Turn 10 isn’t looking too smooth right now - his rear end is regularly squirming as he accelerates, which the tyres hate.”
Gasly is out on softs, running with a load of flow-vis on the back of the rear wing of his Alpine.
Even now the team is picking up data as it attempts to improve its prospects.
With that help from Tsunoda, Russell's most recent lap on this programme was a second up on Hamilton's - but that's not representative at all.
Meanwhile, down at Ferrari, there is work ongoing at the back of Sainz's car.
A bit of racing action as Russell slipstreams past Tsunoda, with the help of DRS.
The RB driver yields and allows himself a gap.
Hamilton is back out on track with a set of softs, but the 1.8s gap in the first sector points to a high-fuel long run.
It seems as though, with track temperatures still high, that tyres are being saved for qualifying here.
There could be a flurry of quali sims in the final quarter of the session though.
Alonso has just crossed the line for his first official time of the session, on a set of medium tyres. That was good enough for only 12th.
Leclerc: "Good job on the car, it's a good step forward."
High praise from the Ferrari driver, who struggled on Friday.
Norris goes second now with his - and McLaren's - first lap of the hour.
He is 0.104s off Russell's time, but this is already shaping up to be a thrilling day.
Almost a third of the way through the session and only 10 times have been set - Russell the fastest so far.
Russell has also asked for some foam for the knees. Weird that two drivers are struggling all of a sudden.
By: Autosport Staff
