Hamilton pulls clear in final Spanish GP practice

Lewis Hamilton sent a stark warning shot to his rivals in final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon as he pulled half a second clear of the field ahead of qualifying later today.

After trailing Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas in both FP1 and FP2 on Friday, Hamilton bounced back to finish fastest ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton’s best time of 1m16.568s saw him sit 0.531 seconds clear of Leclerc. The Briton asked where he could have found more time, only for his engineer to say there were no obvious areas for improvement.

Leclerc was left to settle for P2 ahead of Bottas, whose running was limited after a spin on the cold track early in the session that brought out a red flag.

Bottas lost the rear of his Mercedes W10 car and beached his car in the gravel, requiring recovery back to the pits. He was able to get back out later in the session, though, ultimately finishing third-fastest ahead of Sebastian Vettel for Ferrari.

cmgAdQueuePush( function(){ AccelerateAdManager.displayAd(“inarticle2”); });

Bottas was not the only driver to trigger a red flag in FP3. Williams’ George Russell spun off at Turn 9 in the final couple of minutes, bringing the session to an early end.

Haas’ strong showing in Spain continued as Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen took fifth and sixth respectively, both outpacing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in seventh.

cmgAdQueuePush( function(){ AccelerateAdManager.displayAd(“ad-mpu-1-mobile”); });

Alexander Albon wound up eighth for Toro Rosso ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, while Carlos Sainz completed the top 10.

Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix begins at 3pm local time in Barcelona (2pm BST).