The second day of action in the Spanish Grand Prix 2024 started with the dispute of the FP3which was much calmer than usual until the last minutes of practice of the weekend arrived, when the teams took the opportunity to carry out qualifying simulations.
After a fire that was quickly controlled in the McLaren F1 hospitality and that set off the alarms about 15 minutes before Free Practice 3, the session was able to start as planned and took place without any setbacks. At the end of the 60 minutes, Carlos Sainz set the best time with a record of 1:13,013.
Behind and less than a tenth, with an impressive equality, Lando Norris (+0.030s), Charles Leclerc (+0.037s) and Max Verstappen (+0.074s) completed the top four positions at the end of free practice at the Circuit of Barcelona-Catalonia.
The Mercedes were also not far behind the Spanish Ferrari driver’s time, with George Russell fifth, just over a tenth away and Lewis Hamilton sixth, 0.3s off the FP3 reference.
Sergio Pérez was the negative note of the leading group, with a 1:13.723 that left him 0.7s behind the leader.
Alexander Albon, Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri completed the top ten positions, although they were far from the battle at the front of the grid.
*See full summary after Saturday’s results and photos
Results of Free Practice 3 of the 2024 Spanish GP of F1
(Click on ‘see results’ to see the entire table)
Summary of Free Practice 3 (FP3) of the 2024 Spanish GP of Formula 1
The third free practice session of the 2024 Spanish GP began with very little rush to get out on the track, in fact, in the first five minutes only Hamilton did several laps with a best time of 1:14.178. A few minutes later, Verstappen and Kevin Magnussen also took to the asphalt, but after their first turns, neither could overtake the Briton.
With the softer tires and back on the track, Hamilton lowered the bar to 1:13.865, but he was the only one along with his teammate Russell who mounted the red tires in those first 10 minutes of the session.
In fact, Russell was the first to beat Hamilton with a 1:13.431. Just at that moment, the two Ferraris also came out on soft tires and placed 2nd and 3rd, one tenth away, with Sainz ahead. After fifteen minutes of FP3, only nine drivers had set a time, while the Aston Martins had only done one installation lap.
The Alpine drivers were next to use the soft tyre, but were sixth and seventh, a second behind Russell’s best time. Right at that moment, with mediums, Norris climbed to second place with a 1:13.535.
Once all the drivers recorded a time, nothing changed at the top of the classification, but Alonso placed 12th with the mediums, behind Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon and Valtteri Bottas.
At the halfway point of Free Practice 3, all the drivers were on the track adding kilometers behind the wheel of their cars, but practically no one painted the sectors green, much less purple.
Reaching the last 20 minutes of the session, some drivers began to go through the pits to mount new tires and begin their qualifying simulations. The first driver to do so from the top of the table was Norris, but he aborted his first lap and returned to the box. Shortly after, his teammate, Oscar Piastri, did complete his lap but did not improve and stayed seventh.
Back on the track, this time Norris did improve and climbed to first place with a 1:13.043, three tenths ahead of Russell. The next to try his luck was Hamilton, but he was 0.316s behind Norris, although Alonso’s Aston Martin finished further away, 0.743s behind the reference at that time.
Stroll, on his fastest lap, was hindered by Hamilton and the Canadian did not take it well at all and slightly impacted the car of the British driver, who admitted fault for not having left the line in time.
A few moments later, Russell improved and moved up to second place, 0.121s behind Norris. The Ferraris were the next to set a lap with new soft tires and Carlos Sainz stole first place from his former McLaren teammate with a 1:13.013, with Leclerc 0.037s behind. Verstappen was also unable to improve the time of the Spaniard from Ferrari, but finished very close (fourth at just 0.074s).
Sergio Pérez was the slowest driver in the leading group and settled for seventh place at 0.710s.
Already with the checkered flag, Leclerc also touched Norris’s car slightly, presumably due to a previous impediment by the British driver, a very controversial move, like Stroll’s with Hamilton a few minutes before.
Both incidents will be investigated after the session.
