Spanish GP: Hamilton outpaces Leclerc by 0.5s in FP3

Mercedes driver Hamilton enjoyed a commanding advantage over the chasing Ferraris in FP3, which ended under red flags when Russell lost the rear of his Williams at Turn 4 and ended up in the wall backwards after travelling through the gravel.

That stopped three drivers – Red Bull's Pierre Gasly, Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg and McLaren's Lando Norris – completing a final new-tyre run and some from improving on a second flying lap on softs.

However, it did nothing to impact the gap Hamilton had over the next-best driver, Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton's eventual best was a 1m16.568s, more than half a second clear of the two Ferraris.

Leclerc pipped Sebastian Vettel by 0.073s, a tiny margin that was still big enough for Valtteri Bottas to slot into and steal third from Vettel.

Bottas's session started badly when he caused a seven-minute red flag by spinning on his out-lap at Turn 5 and beaching his car in the gravel.

After the Mercedes was recovered Bottas did join the action but the Friday pacesetter ended up 0.555s slower than teammate Hamilton.

Vettel, demoted to fourth by Bottas's improvement, had his own spin when he lost the rear mid-corner at the chicane early in the session.

He ended up only a fraction faster than the leading Haas of Romain Grosjean as the American team challenged the established frontrunners in final practice.

Grosjean believes Haas can "play" with Red Bull in Spain and his pace in FP3, 0.624s off the pace and within a tenth of both Ferraris and Bottas.

Kevin Magnussen also got ahead of the two Red Bulls in the second Haas, lapping sixth fastest and 0.962s off the pace.

Max Verstappen was Red Bull's leading man, partly thanks to Gasly being denied a final run.

Verstappen was fractionally slower than Magnussen, 0.990s behind Hamilton, but encountered traffic in the final sector of his first lap on new tyres at the end of the session.

Toro Rosso driver Alex Albon finished the session eighth, while Kimi Raikkonen's Alfa Romeo and the McLaren of Carlos Sainz completed the top 10.

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	14	1'16.568
2	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	16	1'17.099	0.531
3	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	9	1'17.123	0.555
4	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	15	1'17.172	0.604
5	Romain Grosjean		Haas	15	1'17.192	0.624
6	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	15	1'17.530	0.962
7	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	12	1'17.558	0.990
8	Alex Albon		Toro Rosso	16	1'17.864	1.296
9	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	17	1'17.969	1.401
10	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	17	1'18.003	1.435
11	Daniil Kvyat		Toro Rosso	17	1'18.105	1.537
12	Nico Hulkenberg		Renault	17	1'18.350	1.782
13	Sergio Perez		Racing Point	12	1'18.656	2.088
14	Pierre Gasly		Red Bull	12	1'18.693	2.125
15	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	16	1'18.734	2.166
16	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	14	1'18.740	2.172
17	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	14	1'18.974	2.406
18	Lando Norris		McLaren	14	1'19.007	2.439
19	George Russell		Williams	16	1'19.421	2.853
20	Robert Kubica		Williams	18	1'20.570	4.002
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