Practice 3 at Madring: Hamilton penalty after crash? Antonelli 1st, Verstappen 5th

One last practice session before the final practice for the traditional Spanish Grand Prix on the new Madrid circuit. The drivers still have their work cut out for them as they try to get to grips with the pitfalls of the Madrid circuit.

With temperatures at 24.4 degrees (the track surface at 44.4 degrees), six-time Grand Prix winner Ralf Schumacher said: “The drivers now need to step it up a gear and try to push to the limit by the end of the third practice session.”

In the second practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix alone, there were 51 infringements due to cars straying too far from the track – something that could become an issue later on in qualifying. Just like the traffic here. On Friday, the fast drivers were tripping over each other’s wheels one after the other.

Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer: “The next problem is that the track is continuing to develop rapidly. You have to take that into account when constantly adjusting the set-up.”

Ralf Schumacher again on his expectations for the third practice session: “Mercedes will now step up their performance, and I expect more from McLaren too. And Ferrari must show a strong response after the disaster at Monza.”

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Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was already looking ahead to Sunday’s Grand Prix: “Overtaking will be difficult here. It’s of little use if you have good race pace but can’t get past your rivals. Many teams will certainly focus more on qualifying here than at other circuits.”

At the start of the third practice session: problems with the barrier for the Englishman Arvid Lindblad, who had shone on Friday with the fourth-fastest time, but then crashed his car into the track barrier with a bang. Apparently, the survival cell was also damaged in the incident, as a new car was prepared for the Briton.

As is often the case at the start, teams adopted a tactical approach, thinking: ‘Let the others clear the track for us.’ Promptly, the Audis driven by Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg – built at the former Sauber factory – were the first cars out on track.

The teams’ tasks: endurance runs on medium and hard tyres, followed by qualifying simulations, ideally towards the end when the track offers the most grip.

After ten minutes, cheers could be heard from the grandstands all the way to Exhibition Hall 5, where the press centre is located – Fernando Alonso was in action! The Aston Martin star had lost a lot of practice time on Friday and was now making up for what he’d already wanted to do 24 hours earlier: lapping on soft Pirelli tyres (marked red).

Alex Albon brought his Williams into the pits; the left rear wheel was standing at a slight angle after he’d hit the wall in the technical final section of the circuit before the start-finish line.

World Champion Lando Norris skidded off the track but managed to avoid the barriers. Now all the star drivers were finally out on track. Hamilton took the lead ahead of Hamilton, and Ralf Schumacher pointed out: “The car is bouncing on the rear axle, which means it’s set up very stiffly. But that can cause the rear tyres to lift off the track on bumps, and without contact between the tyres and the track, it won’t work.”

The other Williams driver, Carlos Sainz, also skidded off the track and brought the car to a halt 20 cm from the track edge, ruining his new set of tyres.

After 20 minutes, championship leader Kimi Antonelli was in the lead, a full six-tenths of a second faster than Hamilton. But Leclerc fought back and reclaimed first place. Verstappen was now out on track too, but Lindblad hadn’t started yet.

After 23 minutes: a shock for Lewis Hamilton’s fans! A crash in the final corner before the start-finish line, the front wing bent at an angle – red flag.

Hamilton found reverse gear and carried on driving with the wing wedged under the car, then with his right front wheel hanging off – even though the rules of the FIA, the world motorsport governing body, actually state that a damaged car must be pulled over.

Then a huge discussion over the radio. Hamilton’s race engineer, Carlo Santi: “Park the car in a safe place, you’ve got a puncture.” Hamilton: “I can see that, I’ll try to get the car back.”

But then even the great Hamilton had to admit that it wasn’t going to work, and he finally pulled the team Ferrari over to the side. Naturally, he’ll have to answer to the race stewards for this; a penalty seems inevitable.

Ralf Schumacher points out: “This track tempts drivers into misjudgements; this could turn out to be an interesting qualifying session. And in the race too, I can see one or two hair-raising situations coming our way, for example when the tyres start to wear out.”

There was a lengthy pause afterwards because the TecPro barrier at the scene of the crash had to be repaired.

Ralf Schumacher again: “That final corner is really tight; Hamilton messed up the entry and was slightly off the ideal line. He should have applied the brakes – perhaps he would have managed the corner then. But he was determined to see his fast lap through to the end. As we can see – things like this happen even to the best.”

Then came the announcement from the FIA: the practice session was neutralised, which meant the clock was stopped at 15 minutes and 38 seconds – after a 22-minute enforced break. This unusual move was intended to give the teams at least another quarter of an hour to practise.

At 1.32 pm, things finally got back underway, without Lewis Hamilton, of course. Ralf Schumacher remarked: “If everyone wants to do two more runs on soft tyres, it’s going to be tight.”

At that point, the order was Leclerc, Antonelli, Norris, Hamilton and Hülkenberg.

Max Verstappen moved up to P2, whilst Charles Leclerc continued to improve, a good half a second ahead of the Dutchman. Then Antonelli moved up to P2, Piastri to P3, Russell to P4, leaving Verstappen in fifth.

Shortly afterwards, Lando Norris showed signs of life, moving up to P2, just 70 thousandths behind leader Leclerc. Nico Hülkenberg in the Audi was in 8th place.

With five minutes to go, championship leader Antonelli took the lead, and Max Verstappen also put in a strong performance – fourth, but half a second behind Kimi Antonelli. He then dropped to P5 as Piastri improved his time.

The final incident involved Haas driver Oliver Bearman: a crash at Turn 10. Will it be possible to repair the car in time for qualifying? It’s doubtful.