Carlos Sainz took the lead in the field during the third practice session of the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver set a time of 1:13.013s on the soft compound, surpassing McLaren’s Lando Norris by a margin of 0.030 seconds. Charles Leclerc finished third, splitting the Ferraris. Although Leclerc was the fastest driver in the first two sectors, a wide moment caused him to fall short by 0.037 seconds. Max Verstappen showed an improvement in performance for Red Bull, finishing in fourth place and within a tenth of the fastest lap. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton closely followed for Mercedes. Sergio Perez managed to improve his position to seventh, but remained over six tenths of a second behind Verstappen. Alex Albon surprised with a good eighth place for Williams, while Fernando Alonso finished ninth for Aston Martin. Oscar Piastri struggled during the session and finished in tenth place. Norris reported damage to his McLaren after a slight contact with Leclerc’s Ferrari at the end of the session. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in the Alpine cars were in a single file, with the Sauber of Valtteri Bottas separating the cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen from Haas. Daniel Ricciardo was the leading driver for Red Bull, but the updated VCARB 01 seemed to lack speed. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished ahead of Yuki Tsunoda. Guanyu Zhou in the second Sauber car and Logan Sargeant completed the field. The drivers and teams will now focus on qualifying later.
