EL3 in Madrid: Antonelli ahead of Leclerc, Hamilton and Bearman into the wall

Kimi Antonelli confirms his status as favorite ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying. Already the fastest on Friday afternoon, the Mercedes driver repeated the feat during EL3 by grabbing the best time in the final minutes ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.

But this final practice session was mainly marked by two major accidents. Lewis Hamilton sent his Ferrari into the barriers at the last corner mid-session, causing a very long interruption, before Oliver Bearman also ended up in the barriers at the end of the session. Two incidents that seriously disrupted the final qualifying simulations.

Ferrari quickly takes the lead

Under bright sunshine and with a track temperature already close to 44°C at the start, the drivers took their time before joining the Madring. The two Audis were the first to go out after more than five minutes, while Racing Bulls was still working on Arvid Lindblad’s car, rebuilt after his EL2 accident.

Alexander Albon had the first scare by slightly touching the wall at the entry of turn 21. The contact was enough to damage his left rear suspension and the Williams driver had to painfully return to his garage.

Once the top teams were on track, Ferrari quickly showed its ambitions. Leclerc then Hamilton took the lead on soft tires, before Antonelli went down to 1’33″664. Leclerc immediately responded with a second fast lap in 1’33″332, confirming the excellent pace of the SF-26 on the new Madrid circuit.

Hamilton ends his session in the wall

Hamilton also seemed capable of improving when he made a costly mistake at the last corner. The Briton braked too late and failed to negotiate the curve, ending directly in the barriers.

The impact destroyed his front wing and caused a red flag. Hamilton nevertheless managed to reverse and then return to the track to try to reach the pits. Part of his wing then got stuck under the front right wheel, eventually causing a puncture.

Despite his engineer’s instructions to stop his Ferrari, Hamilton continued for a while before finally stopping at turn 14. His car was recovered by the marshals while the seven-time world champion returned to the paddock as a passenger on a scooter.

An exceptionally long interruption

While the Ferrari was quickly secured, the repairs needed on the barriers at the last corner significantly delayed the restart. After about twenty minutes of interruption, race control even made the unusual decision to stop the clock with 15 minutes and 38 seconds remaining.

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This measure allowed preserving a final quarter of an hour of running so that drivers could carry out their qualifying simulations. The session finally resumed only at 1:32 pm, while it should normally have already ended.

This long interruption at least allowed Racing Bulls to complete repairs on Lindblad’s car. The young driver was thus able to join the track for the last minutes alongside most of the field.

Antonelli snatches the best time from Leclerc

With a track temperature now close to 49°C, the drivers immediately put on new soft tires to prepare for qualifying. Leclerc struck first by going down to 1’32″963, only 70 thousandths ahead of Norris and 297 thousandths ahead of Antonelli.

But like on Friday, Antonelli managed to find more performance on his next attempt. The Italian completed a lap in 1’32″797, pushing Leclerc back by 166 thousandths. The Monegasque then failed to improve enough to regain first place.

Norris finished third just 0″236 off the reference time, an encouraging performance after losing all of EL2 on Friday due to a gearbox problem. The Briton therefore seems to have quickly caught up on part of his learning of the Madring.

Bearman causes a second red flag

The last attempts ultimately never reached their conclusion. Oliver Bearman lost control of his Haas at the entry of the fast chicane before La Monumental and violently ended his run in the barriers.

His car being seriously damaged, a second red flag was deployed. With too little time left to restart the cars, the session definitively ended on this accident.

Antonelli thus keeps first place ahead of Leclerc and Norris and confirms Mercedes’ excellent form on the Madring. Ferrari nevertheless appears extremely close, while McLaren seems to have regained performance with Norris.

Qualifying therefore promises to be particularly tight in Madrid. Antonelli approaches the session with the best time in hand, but Leclerc is only 166 thousandths behind and Norris also remains in the fight. Hamilton, for his part, will mainly have to hope that Ferrari can repair his SF-26 in time after a morning that abruptly ended in the wall.

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