In the last practice session, FP3 for the 2025 Spanish GP, in historical Barcelona, McLaren flew ahead of the pack as teams put tyre compounds and flying lap strategy to the test. Lando Norris followed up in second on the timesheets, closely followed by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
Green Light on FP3
Franco Colapinto is the first to emerge onto track this session, with both Aston Martins and the Kick Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto. All cars began on medium compound tyres before Fernando Alonso completed a quick practice pit stop to switch to hard tyres.
The Pirelli tyre compounds are on the C1, C2 and C3 this week – the hardest compounds of the season. This final practice session, with track temperatures reaching over 45°C, is critical for testing degradation and tyre evolution in the Barcelona heat.
The pit wall was slow-moving across all other teams at the beginning of the session. Along the garages, drivers were just beginning to suit up over ten minutes into the beginning of the session.
Finding Speed
Teams flooded the track after fifteen minutes, with a mix of soft and medium compounds onboard. Both Ferraris and George Russell’s Mercedes began displaying their dominance, setting lap times in the 1.13s. The McLaren of Lando Norris also shot up through the times, with Kimi Antonelli following suit not long after.
Oscar Piastri had cockpit troubles, with the Australian driver asking his team to check for issues after feeling an object against his left leg.
Williams are looking more competitive for the first time this weekend, managing to break through into the top ten. With Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon sitting 8th and 9th, respectively, by mid-session, things could be looking up after some disappointing practice results on Friday.
Oliver Bearman kicked up some gravel after running wide, highlighting how critical maintaining grip with tyre compounds will be throughout qualifying and the race.
Final Stretch
Liam Lawson also had troubles with oversteer, finding the gravel before quickly recovering. It wasn’t the only incident in the final minutes, with Lando Norris’s McLaren bottoming out and going extremely wide. He boxed the following lap to check for damage, and the team identified some porpoising issues.
Max Verstappen snatched the lead from the Mercedes and maintained it for over twenty minutes, as other top teams went back to the garage to analyse the session’s results so far.
Haas is still finding the heat of the Barcelona track a major struggle, with their goal of seeing top ten results falling short. One team that wasn’t struggling late in the session was Kick Sauber, with the cars in fourth and fifth for a period after practice flying laps. Could this signal a major shift in performance going into qualifying later this afternoon?
The final few minutes saw cars flying back onto the track to practice final flyers before qualifying. Both McLarens sped to the top, with Piastri sitting over half a second ahead of the pack comfortably.
Isack Hadjar’s Racing Bull shot to fifth on the times, just below Max Verstappen in fourth. The success of others meant lacklustre results from Williams after all. Sitting in 13th and 19th, the cars struggled along through final push laps as they attempted to find their footing. Sainz seemed to be fighting the car and traffic, joining the list of those who found the gravel this session.
Ferrari had varied results, with Leclerc sitting in third with just two minutes to go. Lewis Hamilton couldn’t seem to find higher than eighth after the field had completed flying laps. Hamilton found by the end of the session that he was struggling to downshift the car, with the car sounding clunky through the gears. Will Ferrari have the time to replace a gearbox before qualifying?
Feature Image: McLaren Media Centre
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