Spanish GP: Charles Leclerc in potential hot water as Carlos Sainz raises home pole hopes

Carlos Sainz climbs into his Ferrari.

Carlos Sainz has raised hopes of a home pole at the Spanish Grand Prix, by taking top spot in an extremely tight FP3 session in Barcelona.

But late on in the session, an apparent moment of road rage from Charles Leclerc saw him cut across the front of Lando Norris on the way down to Turn 7, with the McLaren driver reporting damage as the pair appeared to make contact, with the Ferrari driver seemingly frustrated at a moment between them beforehand.

Carlos Sainz tops Spanish Grand Prix FP3 as Charles Leclerc cuts across Lando Norris

The start to FP3 happened just minutes after an electrical fire having happened at the McLaren hospitality unit in Barcelona, though the team said they ‘safely evacuated’ the area while local firefighters handled the problem.

On track, only a handful of runners went out early as they looked for the track to warm up – with the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton split by Carlos Sainz in the opening 15 minutes on soft tyres.

Lando Norris went a tenth off the pace on medium tyres in his McLaren, with Charles Leclerc fourth fastest only 0.141s off Russell’s early benchmark – but with different run plans in place, it was likely to be later in the session where a more representative show of pace would be present, with further long-run simulations punctuating the middle of the practice hour.

More key analysis from the Spanish Grand Prix weekend so far

 Spanish GP data: Red Bull weak spot discovered as F1 2024 rivals gain ground

 Ferrari make ‘double gains’ on Red Bull, McLaren with ‘fast-tracked’ upgrade

Bolting on the soft tyres later on, Norris had to back out of his first flying lap after suffering understeer into the uphill left-hander of Turn 7, putting his hands on top of his steering wheel in frustration as he aborted his attempt.

But after a run through the pits and another build lap, a 1:13.043 put him top of the leaderboard as the drivers looked to get a flying run in before the session ended.

Elsewhere, Oscar Piastri lost time on the exit of Turn 12 by having a snap of oversteer and grazing the gravel as he got back on the power, ending up eight tenths behind his team-mate after that particular run.

Hamilton’s soft tyre run put him three tenths behind Norris with 10 minutes to go in the session, but in going slowly at the Turn 5 hairpin, Lance Stroll got close to him and got frustrated at the seven-time World Champion for not having moved out of his way sooner, saying Hamilton “thinks he’s alone on track.”

On his lap, Carlos Sainz moved top of the pile by three hundredths from Norris and stayed clear of Verstappen, with three different constructors separated by 0.074s.

Charles Leclerc was next, who set a purple first and second sector but tailed off slightly in the third to go 0.037s behind Sainz.

Late on, Leclerc was on the run down to Turn 7 and passing Norris and in a moment of apparent road rage, cut across the McLaren driver – with Norris reporting damage with the drivers both going at speed.

The stewards are likely to get involved with that moment, but on track, only 0.151s separated the top five drivers at the end of the session, from four different constructors, setting up what is likely to be a highly-competitive qualifying session.

Spanish Grand Prix 2024: FP3 classification

1 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari 1:13.013
2 Lando NORRIS McLaren +0.030
3 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +0.037
4 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull +0.074
5 George RUSSELL Mercedes +0.151
6 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +0.346
7 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull +0.710
8 Alexander ALBON Williams +0.740
9 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +0.773
10 Oscar PIASTRI McLaren +0.894
11 Esteban OCON Alpine +0.937
12 Pierre GASLY Alpine +0.951
13 Nico HULKENBERG Haas +0.962
14 Valtteri BOTTAS Kick Sauber +1.011
15 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas +1.061
16 Daniel RICCIARDO RB +1.148
17 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +1.241
18 Yuki TSUNODA RB +1.407
19 ZHOU Guanyu Kick Sauber +1.559
20 Logan SARGEANT Williams +1.716

Read next: Ferrari boss hits out at ‘completely irrational’ Lewis Hamilton sabotage theory