Max Verstappen sent a warning to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes ahead of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix by setting the fastest time in final practice.
The Red Bull driver finished the final practice session fastest of all, over two tenths quicker than championship Lewis Hamilton.The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr were around half a second slower than Verstappen, with Valtteri Bottas fifth fastest in the second Mercedes.
It was another warm and clear session as the cars ventured out onto the circuit for the final practice session.
Antonio Giovinazzi lost a small piece of bodywork running over the kerbs, while Daniel Ricciardo took to the old section of the circuit in the final sector to get out of the way of a car on a fast lap.
After over 20 minutes had passed, the two Mercedes eventually made their way out onto the circuit. Hamilton went fastest of all on the soft tyre with a 1’18.117, with Bottas three tenths off his team mate’s pace and Verstappen half a second behind on the medium tyres.
Verstappen was audibly unhappy at Hamilton not letting him by in the final sector, lamenting over the radio: “is it him again behind? Unbelievable, this guy in the last sector.”
Kimi Raikkonen suffered a right rear puncture on his Alfa Romeo and had to cruise slowly back to the pits. He was able to safely recover to the garage without the tyre delaminating further and causing any damage to his car.
Lando Norris was caught out when he was told to pit while under braking for turn 10, resulting in him running off onto the gravel. He was able to get back on track without any further dramas.
As the time wound down, the teams moved onto the soft tyres for qualifying simulation runs. Hamilton improved on his own time, but an even better lap by Verstappen saw the Red Bull go over two tenths faster thanks to a very strong middle sector, ensuring he would finish the session quickest of all.
Raikkonen shrugged off his puncture to set the ninth fastest time in his Alfa Romeo, while Sergio Perez will need to find some more performance before qualifying after he was almost eight tenths off his Red Bull team mate’s ultimate pace.
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2021 Spanish Grand Prix third practice result
Third practice visual gaps
Max Verstappen – 1’17.835
+0.235 Lewis Hamilton – 1’18.070
+0.473 Charles Leclerc – 1’18.308
+0.575 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’18.410
+0.588 Valtteri Bottas – 1’18.423
+0.659 Lando Norris – 1’18.494
+0.700 Pierre Gasly – 1’18.535
+0.747 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’18.582
+0.762 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’18.597
+0.771 Sergio Perez – 1’18.606
+0.827 Fernando Alonso – 1’18.662
+0.838 Yuki Tsunoda – 1’18.673
+0.865 Esteban Ocon – 1’18.700
+1.042 Lance Stroll – 1’18.877
+1.170 George Russell – 1’19.005
+1.379 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’19.214
+1.528 Sebastian Vettel – 1’19.363
+1.557 Nicholas Latifi – 1’19.392
+2.164 Mick Schumacher – 1’19.999
+2.402 Nikita Mazepin – 1’20.237
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’18.537 | 1’18.785 | 1’17.835 | -0.702 | 56 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’18.627 | 1’18.170 | 1’18.070 | -0.1 | 68 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’18.996 | 1’18.335 | 1’18.308 | -0.027 | 70 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’18.504 | 1’18.309 | 1’18.423 | +0.114 | 71 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’19.020 | 1’18.674 | 1’18.410 | -0.264 | 70 |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1’19.681 | 1’18.466 | 1’18.700 | +0.234 | 69 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’18.944 | 1’19.092 | 1’18.494 | -0.45 | 66 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1’19.950 | 1’18.518 | 1’18.662 | +0.144 | 73 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’19.062 | 1’18.593 | 1’18.535 | -0.058 | 75 |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’19.732 | 1’19.195 | 1’18.582 | -0.613 | 73 |
| 11 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’19.213 | 1’18.597 | -0.616 | 47 | |
| 12 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda | 1’19.349 | 1’18.918 | 1’18.606 | -0.312 | 56 |
| 13 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’19.669 | 1’18.619 | 1’18.673 | +0.054 | 73 |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’19.429 | 1’19.134 | 1’18.877 | -0.257 | 72 |
| 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’19.234 | 1’18.947 | 1’19.363 | +0.416 | 72 |
| 16 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’19.957 | 1’19.005 | -0.952 | 45 | |
| 17 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’19.694 | 1’19.122 | 1’19.214 | +0.092 | 70 |
| 18 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’20.270 | 1’20.046 | 1’19.392 | -0.654 | 67 |
| 19 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1’20.766 | 1’20.326 | 1’19.999 | -0.327 | 70 |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas-Ferrari | 1’21.976 | 1’20.753 | 1’20.237 | -0.516 | 64 |
| 21 | Roy Nissany | Williams-Mercedes | 1’20.700 | 23 | |||
| 22 | Robert Kubica | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’21.887 | 13 |
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2021 Spanish Grand Prix
- Two reasons why Catalunya may not predict the championship – at least this year
- McLaren to keep “drip-feeding” updates onto 2021 car
- Working group tackling F1’s track limits problem
- ‘We’ll discuss what went wrong’: Hamilton and Verstappen team radio transcript analysis
- 2021 Spanish Grand Prix Star Performers
Patrick (@anunaki)
8th May 2021, 12:03
What happened to Perez?
Max ;)
Jere (@jerejj)
8th May 2021, 12:06
@anunaki Nothing, only practice.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
8th May 2021, 12:47
Only practice yes, but fp3 is usually a bit more representative (still wouldn’t trust it) than the first 2, and let’s not forget perez was half a sec behind in portugal qualifying, while verstappen had a time able to give a tenth to bottas, so 6 tenths difference, not good from perez ofc, even as a historically not good qualifier, it risks to put him behind slower cars.
Palaboran
8th May 2021, 13:19
So with that theory we can expect Vettel on pole?
w0o0dy
8th May 2021, 12:12
Max has been focussing on the race pace and so has Perez. They now put Mercedes on alert and will go for it in qualifying and might be targeting something strategic for qualifying… The strategy with Perez seemed to work quite well so they might go for a repeat if Max cannot get onto the front row. Qualifying will be interesting!
Kribana (@krichelle)
8th May 2021, 12:13
As usual, almost every race weekend has at least one driver calling out Hamilton on blocking their laps.
Tommy Scragend
8th May 2021, 12:28
Maybe he should stop blocking other drivers then.
Rodber
8th May 2021, 12:36
Tyre management at its finest. Kimi managing a delaminating tyre all the way back to box, “without the tyre delaminating further or causing any damage to his car”.
This could be a test set for each of the 20 drivers in turn, during a practice session, with 3 points awarded to all who can succeed.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
8th May 2021, 12:45
Max on top of fp3 for the 8th consecutive time. very meaningful..
Esploratore (@esploratore)
8th May 2021, 12:49
I have to say I didn’t expect verstappen to be ahead in fp3, was expecting a mercedes 1-2 again, but still not at full power yet, so we’ll see.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
8th May 2021, 13:31
Wow Will, an F3 race report AND an F1 practice report within a couple hours? Good going :)
MacLeod (@macleod)
8th May 2021, 13:55
He meant Lewis was bloody fast! That he already was behind Max not that he was unhappy but supprised… Keith you need to understand Dutch English thoughts a bit
Olivier
8th May 2021, 14:34
Learn to read minds already!