George Russell fastest in final F1 Barcelona GP practice as Kimi Antonelli left frustrated
George Russell tops the times in the final hour of practice at Barcelona.
Mercedes’ George Russell headed McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to set the benchmark pace in final practice at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
The 28-year-old Briton was 0.214 seconds seconds quicker than Oscar Piastri, and 0.243s clear of Charles Leclerc, who edged out McLaren’s Lando Norris to the third-fastest time.
Lewis Hamilton was a distant fifth, seven tenths off the pace, with the seven-time world champion ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was a frustrated seventh.
Antonelli, who hit traffic on both of his final soft tyre runs, has consistently lagged behind Russell in the practice sessions he has contested this weekend.
Having aborted his final soft tyre attempt, Antonelli complained several times over team radio as he returned to the pits, asking “why do I always get traffic?”
Russell is looking to halt Antonelli’s recent momentum and reduce his 68-point deficit to the Italian teenager, who has won the last five races.
It is worth noting that Russell’s time - a 1m15.679s - was slower than Norris’s best effort from second practice on Friday.
Isack Hadjar ended up eighth-fastest in the second Red Bull, ahead of Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Arvid Lindblad, who rounded out the top-10 for Racing Bulls.
There was limited running throughout final practice as teams avoided putting more laps than needed on the tyres given the heat and expectation of multiple pit stops in Sunday’s grand prix.
F1 drivers are facing the highest tyre degradation of the 2026 season so far amid searing temperatures in Spain, and there are fears Sunday’s are could be a “deg fest”.
A fairly uneventful FP3 was interrupted by a red flag when Valtteri Bottas ended up beached in the gravel bed at Turn 10.
The Cadillac driver had a snap coming out of Turn 9 but managed to keep his car on track before backing off on the following straight.
Bottas then bizarrely careered off the track into the gravel at the next corner as he seemed powerless to stop his car.
"I lost my brake pedals. It's gone, the pedal is gone. I got very lucky there,” Bottas reported over team radio.
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