Spanish Grand Prix FP3: Kimi Antonelli tops. Lewis Hamilton and Oliver Bearman crash!

Hence, the Formula 1 Championship leaders heads into Qualifying later on Saturday as favorites after posting a 1:32.797, 0.166s faster the Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

Oscar Piastri was third fastest for McLaren, 0.189s off the top time and ahead of teammate Lando Norris who was over two tenths off the pace in fourth.

It was a decent recovery for the reigning Formula 1 Champion after a tough Friday saw McLaren struggle for pace while Norris himself was hit by gearbox issue which meant he missed almost the whole of FP2.

Max Verstappen was 0.375s off the pace in fifth as George Russell was sixth, a concerning seven tenths of the benchmark time set by his teammate.

Liam Lawson was seventh fastest in the other Red Bull Racing RB22, albeit over one second off the pace and less than a tenth clear of Nico Hulkenberg who was eighth fastest in the Audi. Gabriel Bortoleto was tenth fastest.

Hamilton split the Audis in ninth due to the time he posted before crashing mid session bringing out the first Red flag.

The seven-time Formula 1 Champion hit the barrier head on in the final corner damaging the nose and front wing of his Ferrari which he tried to get back to the pits despite his team's instructions not to. Eventually he parked it on the side of the track.

With the barrier repairs taking so much time, the Race Director decided to stop the clock with 15 minutes remaining to allow the teams some more running, a wise decision given the new track they are racing on.

In the dying moments of the session, Oliver Bearman binned his Haas and brought the second Red flag with not enough time remaining to restart the session.

Mercedes, unsurprisingly emerged as the team to beat after the first two hours of running of Formula 1's maiden visit to the Madring while Ferrari seemed to be second fastest, on pure pace that is.

But a look at the long runs showed an interesting picture. While Mercedes remained the team to beat with Russell setting strong pace on high fuel loads, Verstappen was the second fastest, a little over a tenth off the pace, despite Red Bull Racing being slower than a Racing Bulls, that of Lindblad, in FP2.

Ferrari struggled on the long runs and where almost one second off the pace while McLaren, who had a tough Friday especially with Norris' gearbox issues, were almost 1.5s too slow with Piastri. They were also slow in qualifying runs.

Tyre management will be paramount at the Madring with degradation and overheating being two serious issued to deal with while the teams also have to find the best deployment settings to manage the tyres while extracting the best lap time.

Another area the engineers will have to work out is the compromise to handle the kerbs which will have an effect on how they set up the cars in terms of the ride height and the suspension stiffness.

The session started in clear conditions as track temperature was 44 degrees Celsius as air temperature was 24 degrees.

Despite the light at the pit exit green, none of the drivers ventured out on the track, but six minutes into the session, Audi sent Bortoleto out.

Hulkenberg followed moments later as Fernando Alonso joined ten minutes into the session as more drivers joined the action.

Soon Alex Albon returned to the Williams garage and reported that he hit the wall with his rear left tyre and asked the team to have a look.

Replay showed he hit the wall coming out of Turn 20.

Almost 15 minutes into the session, the action started ramping up with the rest of the drivers joining the action. Verstappen and Arvid Lindblad stayed behind.

Norris messed up Turn 5 and had to go straight and on the kerbs.

Carlos Sainz brought out a brief Yellow flag when he messed up Turn 7 and went straight, braking hard, locking up but somehow managing to stop his FW48 just before he hit the Tecpro barrier.

Lance Stroll also caused another Yellow flag as he ended up in the run-off area at Turn 20 and rejoined.

20 minutes into the session, Lindblad was still in the car as his VCARB03 on the stands as it didn't fire up after being repaired following his crash in FP2. Racing Bulls replaced the chassis.

Then a few minutes later, Hamilton found his way into the barriers, head on in the final corner. He managed to find reverse and backed out and drove back to the pits with a broken front wing stuck under his car.

The team asked him to stop as his front right wing was lifted due to the wing stuck under the car, but he insisted on bringing it back.

Eventually Hamilton gave up and had to park he car at the side of the track. The Red flag was out.

Too bad, Hamilton was on a decent lap before losing it at that final corner.

It seemed the repairs for the barrier where Hamilton crashed were taking too much time and Race Control decided to stop the clock with 15 minutes remaining.

This meant around 15 minutes of running were lost before stopping the clock.

That delay was beneficial for Lindblad as his team had the chance to finish his car and send him out for some running. Albon also was lucky as his earlier touch of the wall caused damage on his rear suspension with the stoppage allowing the Williams mechanics to fix it.

The teams sent their drivers out for some qualifying runs to fine tune their cars before Qualifying takes place later on Saturday.

Pierre Gasly had a moment with Norris coming up in his way while on a fast back, and both of them were in Hulkenberg's way as he was on a hot lap behind them.

Lindblad then missed his braking and went straight at Turn 5 and went straight but no crash this time.

With seconds remaining, Bearman crashed his Haas in Turn 10 after losing control.

He was ok but his car wasn't and the team had a big job rebuilding the car for Qualifying.

The session was Red flagged and did not restart.