Antonelli tops chaotic Spanish GP FP3 as Hamilton and Bearman crash out

Kimi Antonelli heads into Spanish Grand Prix qualifying as the pace-setter after a turbulent FP3 at Madrid’s Madring circuit on Saturday, a session halted twice by crashes from Lewis Hamilton and Haas driver Oliver Bearman.

Antonelli’s best lap of 1m32.797s edged Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who had briefly led the timesheets before the Mercedes driver improved on his second flying run. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and world champion Lando Norris rounded out the top four, just two tenths adrift of Antonelli — a tentative step forward for the Woking outfit after a difficult Friday.

The session was first halted after just 23 minutes when Hamilton locked up his front tyres into Turn 22, the final corner, and tapped the TecPro wall hard enough to dislodge his front wing. The incident might have been minor had Hamilton not just passed pit entry, forcing him to attempt a full lap on three wheels as the detached wing dragged along the ground and began piercing his front-right tyre. Against his team’s instructions, the seven-time world champion tried to complete the lap before abandoning his effort at the exit of Turn 14.

Barrier repairs following Hamilton’s incident were extensive enough that race control stopped the clock at 15 minutes and 38 seconds to preserve meaningful running time. The delay stretched to nearly 40 minutes as track workers realigned the barriers, with Leclerc holding the provisional fastest time — a 1m33.332s — ahead of Antonelli and Norris at the resumption.

Once running resumed, Leclerc improved to a 1m32.963s, initially holding the lead over Antonelli before the championship leader found a significant chunk of lap time on his second attempt to go quickest.

Antonelli’s time was never threatened. In the final minute, Bearman lost the rear of his Haas into the Turn 10 right-hander and struck the concrete wall, sustaining significant damage to the left-hand side of his car and triggering a second red flag that ended the session early.

Max Verstappen had a disrupted session, only joining the action moments before Hamilton’s red flag, and did not feature among the frontrunners. Antonelli, who leads the drivers’ championship, will carry the momentum of FP3 into qualifying later on Saturday.