SPANISH GP – Oscar Piastri leads McLaren one-two going half a second ahead of Lando Norris in third practice
Oscar Piastri led a McLaren one-two in third practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, the Australian set a 12.187 to go over half a second faster than teammate Lando Norris. McLaren have topped all three sessions comfortably with Piastri’s fastest time seven-tenths faster than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Ahead of the weekend there had been speculation that the technical directive restricting flexi-wings would hamper McLaren that appears not to be the case, despite the slow start to the session. Leclerc was a hundredth faster than the Mercedes of George Russell with Max Verstappen nearly a second off, but the four-time champion was seven thousandths ahead of Isack Hadar.
Verstappen particularly impressed through Barcelona’s final sector, which was restored to its former glory a few years ago and features two extremely fast right-hand corners that suit the RB21. Norris meanwhile was forced to bail out of his lap after a moment at Turn Nine, he did improve on his next lap despite being on used tyres.
Russell had topped the timesheets after the first runs but finished the session in fourth, with Max Verstappen unhappy with his car in fifth and nearly one second off the pace. But the Red Bull driver did try again but was unable to challenge the McLarens
Kimi Antonelli was seventh the Mercedes driver around a quarter of a tenth behind the Racing Bull and ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time champion struggled to find the same pace as Leclerc finishing a second off the pace of Piastri, with Liam Lawson completing the top ten going a tenth behind.
The New Zealander did have a moment when he dipped a wheel over the white line kicking up some gravel. The two Sauber’s missed out on the top ten by eight hundredths with Gabriel Bortoleto going a hundredth ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg. Yuki Tsunoda put his Red Bull fourteenth just over a tenth behind.
Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin fifteenth as he went half a tenth faster than the Alpine’s, with Pierre Gasly just under a tenth and a half ahead of teammate Franco Colapinto. Esteban Ocon was eighteenth a tenth and a half ahead of Alex Albon with the Haas of Ollie Bearman eight hundredths behind completing the field.