F1 | FP3 | Spanish GP | Oscar Piastri sets blistering pace in third practice ahead of Lando Norris - Motorsport

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Oscar Piastri set the pace in FP3 at the F1 Spanish GP ahead of his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, the full report and results are below.

The McLaren pair was supremely fast, and Charles Leclerc could only set a time seven-tenths slower than Piastri’s benchmark.

The third practice session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya got underway. Franco Colapinto was the first to hit the track.

The Argentine began his run on the medium tyre. He was looking to bounce back from a relatively difficult Friday, especially on the hard tyre.

Early in the session, the track was relatively quiet. Only four cars left the pit lane in the opening 10 minutes. Colapinto was joined by Gabriel Bortoleto and the two Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

After a brief lull, Esteban Ocon was the first driver to run with the soft tyres in FP3. The top teams waited for the track to be cleaned up.

Lando Norris hit the ground running for McLaren

Norris eventually ventured onto the circuit and immediately went to the top of the timesheets. He set a 1:14.540 before being usurped by Williams’ Carlos Sainz.

The Spaniard opted for the soft tyre, while Norris ran with the more durable medium Pirelli compound on his McLaren.

Leclerc had a difficult Friday in the Ferrari but briefly went quickest ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in FP3. The Monegasque’s effort was quickly beaten by Norris and later George Russell.

With 36 minutes to go, Russell laid down a marker on the soft tyre. The British driver set the benchmark, four-tenths quicker than Norris in second.

Russell stayed at the top as his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli; his 1:13.825 was good enough to go second fastest.

Further down the order, Liam Lawson was on target to improve his time but ran into the gravel at Turn 12, before immediately pitting.

Turn 12 continued to cause problems as Oliver Bearman touched the gravel with his right side tyres, costing the Haas driver time.

Both Mercedes ran out of sync and Norris made an error

Russell and Antonelli continued to complete consecutive laps on the soft tyre with around 20 minutes left while the other frontrunners stayed in the garage.

The Italian didn’t improve his time as the soft tyre degraded quickly due to the flurry of medium and high-speed turns.

The Mercedes pair were beaten by Max Verstappen’s 1:13.375, which was just 0.021 of a second quicker than Russell.

As Verstappen led, Norris survived sudden porpoising at Campsa before taking to the runoff area on the outside of the track. He didn’t set a personal best in the first sector before running wide.

The McLarens attempted a second soft tyre run, and Piastri set an ominous 1:12.387, half a second quicker than Norris, with Leclerc a further two-tenths back.