Lewis Hamilton tops final practice as Esteban Ocon crash ends the action early

Spanish Grand Prix

Hamilton tops final practice as Ocon crash ends the action early

Magnussen and Ocon tangle to prematurely end final practice

Sam Hall

Saturday 15 August 2020 13:09

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Lewis Hamilton goes fastest in final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix as Esteban Ocon crashes in bizarre fashion to bring a premature end to the sesssion.

Hamilton goes into qualifying fastest of all with a margin of +0.151 seconds from Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

The 1:17.222 of Hamilton was half a second faster than Max Verstappen in third while Carlos Sainz posted a mid-session 1:18.046 that was good enough for fourth.

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Practice came to an early close when Esteban Ocon allowed Kevin Magnussen past at turn three, the Dane on a quick lap.

Magnussen backed off and decelerated on the run to turn four. In pulling across the track, the Haas driver caught Ocon napping, and the Frenchman spun his Renault into the wall.

The incident is being investigated by the stewards.

Both Mercedes and Red Bull remained in the garage for the first half of the one hour session. To this point, Charles Leclerc had set the fastest time for Ferrari with a 1:18.950.

Leclerc had set his time on the medium tyres, so when Mercedes and Red Bull exited the garage on soft tyres, there was an inevitability of what was to come.

Desipte having to catch a moment of oversteer in the tight sector three chicane, Valtteri Bottas went close to a second faster than the Ferrari man, with a 1:17.971.

Lewis Hamilton made a slightly larger error and set the second fastest time although four tenths off his team-mate.

Max Verstappen proved Red Bull had the pace to be a threat and also reinforced the ability of the RB16 to protect its tyres, managing to go faster on a second push lap on the soft compound tyres to go third fastest at the time.

Completing a second qualifying simulation, Bottas lowered the bar further with a 1:17.373, a time bettered by Hamilton, the Briton completing his third simulation, with a session topping 1:17.222.

Romain Grosjean had stolen the headlines with his turn of pace on Friday, ending the first day of running fifth. However, the pace eluded the Frenchman in final practice with 13th the best he could achieve.

Friday pace also failed to transfer into Saturday for Renault. Fourth fastest on Friday, Ricciardo scraped into the top ten with a 1:18.384 strong enough for only tenth.