2026 F1 Round 14, Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid FP3: Antonelli fastest again as Hamilton and Bearman crashes cause two red flags

On September 12, Kimi Antonelli topped third practice for the Spanish Grand Prix with 1 minute 32.797 seconds, 0.166 seconds ahead of Leclerc, with Piastri third. Separate crashes for Hamilton and Bearman brought out two red flags during the one-hour session, costing around 30 minutes of running and reducing teams’ opportunities to gather qualifying data at the new circuit.

Hamilton crashes; only 15 minutes remain when practice resumes

The first cars did not emerge onto Madring until 5 minutes into the session. Norris, who had lost most of Friday’s second practice to a gearbox problem, also went out late and aborted his first flying lap on soft tyres after cutting the Turn 5 chicane.

Both Williams drivers had scares in quick succession. Sainz narrowly avoided hitting the wall head-on at Turn 7, while Albon brushed the wall at the exit of Turn 20 and damaged a rear toe link. His session ended early without a valid lap time.

At around the 20-minute mark, Antonelli first set 1 minute 33.664 seconds, before Leclerc went fastest with 1 minute 33.332 seconds. Hamilton had a chance to beat his team-mate on his next lap but hit the barrier at the final corner, damaging the front wing and puncturing the right-front tyre. After repeated instructions from the team to stop, he parked beside the track. The session was red-flagged for barrier repairs, and only 15 minutes remained when it resumed.

Antonelli takes the lead late on; Bearman’s crash ends the session early

After the restart, Leclerc was first below 1 minute 33 seconds with a 1 minute 32.963-second lap. Norris closed to around 0.1 seconds on his third flying lap of the day. With 5 minutes remaining, Antonelli went fastest in 1 minute 32.797 seconds. In the final minute, Bearman crashed heavily at Turn 10, bringing out a second red flag that ended practice. Haas faced a race to repair the car before qualifying.

McLaren’s Piastri and Norris finished third and fourth, followed by Verstappen fifth and Russell sixth. Lawson, Hülkenberg, Hamilton and Bortoleto occupied seventh through tenth, with Hamilton’s pre-crash time still good enough for ninth.

Lindblad returned in a rebuilt car after his Friday FP2 crash and finished 14th. Albon was 22nd without a valid lap time. Spanish Grand Prix qualifying was scheduled for 22:00 China Standard Time (UTC+8) that evening.

Full Spanish Grand Prix FP3 results