Hartley in massive shunt as Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in FP3

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Lewis Hamilton will start this afternoon's qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix as the outright favourite after leading team mate Valtteri Bottas in the third free practice session.

Hamilton clocked in with a lap in 1m17.281s, edging out Bottas by 0.013s, and the Ferrari duo of Senastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, by 0.269s and 0.300s respectively.

Spanish Grand Prix - Free Practice 3

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:17.281s		15
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:17.294s	+ 0.013s	19
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:17.550s	+ 0.269s	16
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:17.581s	+ 0.300s	17
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:17.981s	+ 0.700s	16
6	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:18.357s	+ 1.076s	15
7	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:18.706s	+ 1.425s	16
8	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:18.783s	+ 1.502s	16
9	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:18.847s	+ 1.566s	14
10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:18.886s	+ 1.605s	17
11	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:18.905s	+ 1.624s	16
12	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:19.013s	+ 1.732s	5
13	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:19.121s	+ 1.840s	20
14	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:19.236s	+ 1.955s	17
15	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:19.292s	+ 2.011s	19
16	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:19.376s	+ 2.095s	17
17	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:19.428s	+ 2.147s	23
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:19.744s	+ 2.463s	17
19	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:19.900s	+ 2.619s	15
20	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:19.909s	+ 2.628s	13

The majority of the runners headed out on Pirelli's supersoft tyre as teams limit their use of the better suited yellow soft compound.

Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley was the first driver to put a proper time on the board, clocking in with a 1m20.486s lap, but the Aussie admitted the tight final sector was taking its toll on his rear tyres, a common problem at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Hartley's lap was quickly outdone by Bottas before Vettel and then Hamilton sprung to the front. Undeterred, the Finn, with his soft-shod Mercedes, moved back to the top, getting himself into the 1m17s where he was joined by Hamilton.

Meanwhile, the Red Bull duo of Ricciardo and Verstappen were lapping on the medium compound, perhaps an important tyre in terms of race strategy for tomorrow.

Both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were quickly up to speed, putting themselves once again in contention for 'best of the rest' honours for this afternoon.

The yellow flag was brought out a little after the half point of the session when Lance Stroll veered his Williams off the track at Turn 4.

Ricciardo also endured a brief off at Turn 13, but Verstappen's session came to a premature end following an electrical issue on his RB14.

With just a few minutes to go, Brendon Hartley was the victim of a big shunt, clipping the grass on the outside at Turn 9 before heading to the barriers. The Toro Rosso driver, fortunately unhurt, confessed to the error but was clearly shaken by the massive whack.

The mishap will also likely sideline the Kiwi for this afternoon's qualifying session as his mount looked badly bruised by the heavy impact and beyond immediate repair.

The session thus concluded with a Mercedes 1-2 on the cards, nicely setting up the Silver Arrows outfit for the gird-defining session.

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Michael Delaney