Spain, FP3: Hamilton tops FP3 as Ocon crashes

Lewis Hamilton edged Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 1500ths of a second to claim top spot in final practice for the 2020 FIA Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix. Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull.

There was later drama in the session, however, when Esteban Ocon crashed out at Turn 3. The Renault driver was on an out lap when he was overtaken by Kevin Magnussen on the approach to the corner. However, the Haas driver then suddenly seemed to slow and change position on track. Ocon hit the brakes and swerved off track into the wall. The red flags were immediately shown and with a little under two minutes left on the clock the session was not restarted.

In the first half of the session Bottas led the way on soft tyres with a lap of 1:17.791, with Hamilton in second place on mediums. Verstappen was in third, also on softs.

With a little over 20 minutes to go the field made the move towards qualifying sessions and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz split the Mercedes cars with a time of 1:18.046.

Bottas then took the track and he briefly moved back to the top of the order with a six tenths of a second improvement over his earlier time. Hamilton was quickly back in action, however, and he promptly set a time of 1:17.222 to move 0.151 ahead of the Finn.

Verstappen then went out and on the first flyer of his run took third place with a lap of 1:17.737 that lefty him half a second off Hamilton. Sainz’s lap at the start of the quali simulations was good enough for fourth place ahead of Sergio Pérez in the Racing Point. The Mexican finished ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, wjho was just under a second off Hamilton’s pace.

Pierre Gasly took seventh place for AlphaTauri ahead of Lance Stroll in the second Racing Point and the second Red Bull of Alexander Albon. The top 10 was completed by Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.