FP3: Piastri quickest ahead of Norris and Leclerc in third practice for the Spanish Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri set the pace during the final practice session ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, establishing a commanding gap back to his team mate Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, maintaing McLaren's status as the team to beat.

It was a quiet start to the final hour of practice as Franco Colapinto became the first driver to head out onto the track, looking to recover the time he lost in FP1 with a hydraulic issue and continue to get to grips with the Alpine.

PRACTICE DEBRIEF: Can Red Bull or Mercedes take the fight to McLaren at the Spanish Grand Prix?

He was gradually joined by fellow rookie Gabriel Bortoleto and the Aston Martin duo – Fernando Alonso soaked up the atmosphere of his home race by waving to the crowd around a slow lap that served to scrub his tyres ahead of the more competitive sessions.

Amid slightly cooler track temperatures, Yuki Tsunoda took his Red Bull to the top of the timesheets with a time of 1m 14.851s on a set of medium tyres, but his lap was quickly eclipsed by Norris, who went three-tenths clear.

While the Japanese driver reported that he was “sliding a lot”, Carlos Sainz cut the time down even further on his soft tyres as the majority of the field took to the circuit to make the most of the remaining 40 minutes.

A lack of grip similarly irked Max Verstappen, who found himself behind the lead Williams after the initial fast laps. Meanwhile, George Russell demonstrated the potential pace of the red-walled tyres as he was quickest by 0.473s at the halfway mark.

READ MORE: Russell ‘in a good place’ after ‘decent’ Friday for Mercedes in Spain despite concern over long-run pace

As the action quietened a little, Liam Lawson dipped a wheel over the white line and kicked up some gravel during a flying lap, sending him straight back to the pits – Ollie Bearman replicated the error a short time later while trying to improve from P18.

The final quarter of FP3 saw the drivers focused on Qualifying simulations, and the battle for the top spot was as tense as ever. In an attempt to beat Verstappen’s time, Norris had a snap of oversteer and was forced to bail out by driving onto the run-off area, with his race engineer explaining that there was some porpoising at Turn 9.

His team mate put together a much cleaner lap to clock the fastest time of the weekend so far, once again demonstrating McLaren’s mighty pace with a 1m 12.387s, leaving Norris more than half a second adrift.

READ MORE: ‘Our competitors look quick’ – Piastri predicts ‘tight battle’ during Qualifying in Barcelona

With just a few minutes left, Verstappen made a final effort to get closer to the Australian on the timesheets, but he was only able to set the fifth-quickest time behind Russell’s Mercedes.

At the chequered flag, Isack Hadjar continued his impressive pace with P6 ahead of Kimi Antonelli and crowd favourite Alonso, with Lewis Hamilton and Lawson's Racing Bull rounding out the top 10 in the last session before Qualifying kicks off at 1600 local time.