F1 championship pacesetter Kimi Antonelli is set to enter qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix at the demanding Madring track on top of the timesheets, after a chaotic final practice hit by two red flags.
The Mercedes youngster resisted pressure from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to snatch back the leading position once action resumed after a long interruption midway through the Madrid practice hour.
The third practice session was red-flagged 23 minutes in following an incident where Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari locked his front brakes at the final corner (Turn 22), sliding straight into the barrier and dislodging his front wing.
The contact Hamilton made with the TecPro barrier was minor, but because he had already gone past the pit entrance, he was forced to attempt an entire lap on three functioning wheels with the wing scraping along the asphalt and puncturing his right-front tire.
Ignoring guidance from his garage, the seven-time title winner tried to limp back to the pits under red flag conditions, but eventually had to pull over and park his car near the exit of Turn 14.
Due to the extensive time required to repair the barriers, the stewards chose to pause the session timer at 15 minutes and 38 seconds, guaranteeing that competitors would get a decent window of track time when the session restarted.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli driving for Mercedes
Photo credit: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
Prior to the stoppage, Leclerc—Hamilton’s teammate—was leading the field with a 1m33.332s lap, which edged out Antonelli’s previous best of 1m33.664s, while Hamilton sat in fourth position just behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Following a lengthy halt of almost 40 minutes for marshals to fix the safety barriers, the green light showed again, offering teams a final opportunity to adjust their setups before the qualifying shootout.
Leclerc was the first of the leading group to go for a flying lap, bringing his best time down to a 1m32.963s. This put him ahead of the Mercedes threat at first, with Antonelli trailing by three-tenths of a second, just ahead of Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren.
However, Antonelli unlocked significant pace on his next run, claiming the top spot with a lap of 1m32.797s. The Italian’s leading time remained unchallenged after a late accident by Haas rookie Oliver Bearman triggered another red flag.
During the final minute of the session, Bearman suffered a rear-end slide at the Turn 10 right-hander, hitting the concrete barrier hard and heavily damaging the left side of his Haas. This crash locked in Antonelli’s position at the top of the order, ahead of Leclerc.
Having struggled more during Friday’s running, McLaren showed signs of improvement as Piastri and Norris ended the session in third and fourth, finishing only two-tenths off Antonelli’s pace.
Oliver Bearman in the Haas car
Image credit: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
Max Verstappen’s session was disrupted, only hitting the circuit shortly before the first red flag caused by Hamilton. The Dutch driver ended up fifth, 0.375s off the pace, with Red Bull still finding the curbs of the Madring track difficult to handle and trailing their rivals in overall performance.
George Russell, who was forced to abandon a rapid lap that saw him set the quickest opening sector before the red flag, failed to string a clean lap together once the track went green, ending up sixth. Right behind him was Liam Lawson in the other Red Bull, whose final attempt was ruined by an error.
Nico Hulkenberg placed his Audi in eighth; he had initially registered the quickest first sector before losing time due to traffic later in his run.
Hamilton slipped to ninth in the final standings, while Gabriel Bortoleto, Hulkenberg’s teammate, completed the top ten positions.
Alex Albon’s running was cut short early on after the Williams driver clipped the barrier, spending the rest of the hour in the garage for suspension fixes.
F1 Spanish Grand Prix – FP3 Classification
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– The Team at Autosport.com
