2021 F1 Round 4, Spanish Grand Prix FP3: Verstappen fastest by 0.235s as three leading contenders top one practice session each

In the early evening of May 8 (China Standard Time, UTC+8), Saturday’s third practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, round four of the 2021 F1 season, took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set a 1:17.835 to lead the field by 0.235 seconds, topping the timesheets in the final practice session before official qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton was second. His Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, unable to put everything together, was only fifth. Between them were Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, with the two in-form Ferraris taking third and fourth.

Balance is the key to a qualifying lap at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Push too hard in the early sectors and the tyres will not last to the final sector, so the effort needs to be managed with the whole lap in mind.

On his soft-tyre lap, Hamilton set a personal best in sector one and the fastest time overall in sector two, but failed to improve his personal best in sector three. His fastest lap ultimately came on medium tyres: although sectors one and two of that lap were not personal bests, sector three was the quickest overall.

By contrast, Verstappen topped the times with a personal best in sector one, the fastest time overall in sector two and, despite oversteer at the final corner, another personal best in sector three. Given that he had been only ninth in FP2, it was fair to say he had finally shown his true pace.

Three different drivers—Bottas, Hamilton and Verstappen—topped the three practice sessions in turn, leaving an enticing three-way battle to look forward to in qualifying. Judging by Saturday morning alone, the Dutchman’s strength certainly stood out, but Hamilton can be expected to strike back in qualifying.

Given how competitive Ferrari have been in every practice session, Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Pérez could be in for a difficult Saturday afternoon.

At Catalunya, where overtaking is difficult, qualifying holds the key to the race result, and Pérez is struggling with his one-lap pace on soft tyres. In this session, he was outpaced not only by Ferrari and McLaren but even by Kimi Räikkönen (Alfa Romeo), leaving him only tenth.

At AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly showed his usual consistency in seventh, while Yuki Tsunoda finished twelfth, with just 0.138 seconds between them. The midfield was fiercely competitive: the 11 cars from Leclerc in third to Esteban Ocon (Alpine) in thirteenth were covered by less than 0.4 seconds.

During the session, Tsunoda was unhappy with the timing of the team’s radio messages. When his engineer told him, “Braking into Turn 10 after using DRS is fine,” he raised his voice: “You always tell me too late. I’m already at the corner entry!” He was immediately reassured: “Calm down, we’ll get it right next time.”

Barcelona enjoyed cloudless skies on the second day of the Grand Prix weekend. This dress rehearsal for qualifying began in dry conditions, with an air temperature of 23°C and a track temperature of 37°C.

Race 1 of the FIA Formula 3 Championship had taken place earlier, drawing attention to how much rubber had been laid down on the track. Home hero Alonso, the first to head out as soon as the green flag was shown, gave his verdict: “No grip”—how true that was is unclear, but he finished eleventh, outside the top ten along with team-mate Ocon.

Räikkönen secured a strong ninth place but suffered a right-rear tyre blowout in the closing stages. Antonio Giovinazzi, also in a C41, finished sixteenth, with a sizeable 0.617-second gap between the two cars.

Aston Martin now had upgrades on both cars and appeared to have made a major step forward, yet both ended up towards the back: Lance Stroll was fourteenth and Sebastian Vettel seventeenth.

McLaren, like Ferrari, had both cars in the top ten. Sixth-placed Lando Norris ran off at Turn 10 and plunged into the gravel in the closing stages, but unlike Kubica, who had gone off in the same way in FP1, he managed to return to the track unaided. Daniel Ricciardo set the eighth-fastest time.

Qualifying will take place at the same circuit on the evening of May 8 (China Standard Time, UTC+8).