F1 Spanish GP: Verstappen heads rain-hit final practice

Teams were braced for inclement weather, with thunderstorms fast approaching Barcelona from the Pyrenees in the north.

The session started on dry-weather tyres, but spots of rain were soon reported around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

That completely disturbed the teams' usual run programmes in FP3, with all drivers rushing out of the pits at the drop of the green flag to get some precious dry running in.

Most drivers went straight to a single-lap timed run to prepare for qualifying, with Red Bull's Verstappen's 1m13.664s leading team-mate Perez by 0.250s and Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell slotting in behind them.

Home heroes Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso soon split the Mercedes drivers, taking fourth and fifth respectively.

The predicted rain showers duly arrived at the 10-minute mark, hitting the restored final sector first.

Williams' Logan Sargeant appeared to be caught out by moisture in the now ultra-fast final righter-hander, initially correcting a slide but then veering off into the gravel.

Sargeant got away with minimal left-hand side damage as he gently tapped the wall, but as the rain intensified the red flag put paid to any more improvements.

Logan Sargeant, Williams FW45, leaves the circuit and runs through the gravel into the wall during FP3 (Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images)

After a nine-minute delay the session was green-flagged again, but it took until hast the half-hour mark for drivers to sporadically venture out on a damp track.

McLaren's Lando Norris took on the task of conducting a reconnaissance lap on the intermediates to check out the conditions, while the rain appeared to ease off.

With 22 minutes to go most other drivers followed Norris' example as any intermediate running could prove of great value for Saturday afternoon's qualifying and for Sunday's grand prix, with more potential rain on the way.

In the final minutes Lance Stroll made an excursion through the gravel at Turn 6 on intermediates and Pierre Gasly slid off at Turn 7.

Meanwhile, several others returned to Pirelli's soft slicks, getting close to dry weather times at the end.

Despite the first two sectors drying up, Verstappen's time at the top was never in doubt, heading Perez, Hamilton, Sainz and Alonso.

Russell was sixth ahead of Leclerc, with Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas, AlphaTauri man Yuki Tsunoda and Norris rounding out the top 10 after single hot laps in the dry.

Zhou was 11th for Alfa Romeo, followed by Nyck De Vries, Aston Martin's Stroll and the first Haas of Nico Hulkenberg in 14th.

Oscar Piastri was 15th for McLaren ahead of Esteban Ocon in the first of the Alpines. He headed and Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly as Williams duo Alex Albon and Sargeant propped up the timesheets.

F1 Spanish GP: Full FP3 results

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Red Bull	1'13.664
2	Sergio Perez		Red Bull	Red Bull	1'13.914	0.250
3	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	Mercedes	1'14.072	0.408
4	Carlos Sainz		Ferrari	Ferrari	1'14.240	0.576
5	Fernando Alonso		Aston Martin	Mercedes	1'14.264	0.600
6	George Russell		Mercedes	Mercedes	1'14.278	0.614
7	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari	1'14.353	0.689
8	Valtteri Bottas		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	1'14.360	0.696
9	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	1'14.659	0.995
10	Lando Norris		McLaren	Mercedes	1'14.681	1.017
11	Zhou Guanyu		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	1'14.681	1.017
12	Nyck de Vries		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	1'14.693	1.029
13	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	Mercedes	1'14.756	1.092
14	Nico Hulkenberg		Haas	Ferrari	1'14.988	1.324
15	Oscar Piastri		McLaren	Mercedes	1'15.105	1.441
16	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	Renault	1'15.266	1.602
17	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	Ferrari	1'15.534	1.870
18	Pierre Gasly		Alpine	Renault	1'15.841	2.177
19	Alex Albon		Williams	Mercedes	1'15.851	2.187
20	Logan Sargeant		Williams	Mercedes	1'16.529	2.865
View full results