For the top teams, the third free practice was dominated by the final preparations for qualifying. The drivers mostly drove on soft tires, which are having a hard time this weekend in the extremely hot conditions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. There Mick Schumacher’s track time was severely limited when his flames caught fire after less than fifteen minutes of training. Alpha Tauri driver Pierre Gasly had smoke coming out of his car before he left his team, preventing him from competing at all in VT3.
View Schumacher’s problems here
Max Verstappen waited the longest of all drivers to start his training. When he finally showed up almost halfway through the session, he put his RB18 right behind Charles Leclerc. The World Cup rivals improved considerably later, but were still brotherly at the top when the hour ended: 1.19.844 at 1.19.772 in favor of the Monegask. It also looks good for Mercedes in the run-up to qualifying, they were in P3 and P4 respectively with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Qualifying will take place later this afternoon (4 pm) on the track east of Barcelona. Leclerc defends a 19-point lead over Verstappen, who took the last two races.