F1 GP Spain, free practice 3: Hamilton and Mercedes book pole

Best time for Lewis Hamilton in the third free practice session valid for the Spanish Grand Prix, fifth round of the 2018 Formula One World Championship. The Englishman confirmed the indications received yesterday, placing himself at the top of the standings ahead of his teammate, Valtteri Bottas.

An important indication in view of this afternoon's qualifying, especially in view of the world championship duel with Sebastian Vettel. It should be noted that Mercedes made great use of the soft tyre, managing to limit the gap to the top drivers on the track with the super soft tyres. The use of the soft by the two standard bearers of the Scuderia di Brackley for the passage to Q3 is practically a given. Third and fourth place for the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, separated from the top by around three tenths, followed by Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean. Note an excellent time set by the Australian with medium tyres: according to Marc Genè, a Red Bull capable of passing the Q2 cut-off with the harder compounds cannot be ruled out.

Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly close the top ten. The collapse of Williams continues: Sergety Sirotkin and Lance Stroll closed the ranking, suffering a delay from the Alfa Romeo Sauber close to second. A tragic situation for which they cannot find a remedy. note an electrical problem on Verstappen's car and a very bad accident for Brendon Hartley, with the New Zealander who destroyed the entire rear of his Toro Rosso. It is difficult to imagine his participation in the qualification.

Appointment at 15pm for the qualification from the Montmelo circuit.