World Champion Max Verstappen completed a clean sweep of practice sessions in a rain-affected final hour of running at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya.
Drivers utilised a dry window in the early stages of running to carry out qualifying simulations on Soft tyres, with Verstappen posting a time of 1:13.664s.
Most drivers completed only one or two flying laps in the fully dry conditions with all of the fastest times coming during that section of the session.
The session was halted after only 10 minutes of the hour when Logan Sargeant went off at the final corner as light rain began to fall.
Sargeant had a snap of oversteer through the turn and slid through the gravel before making light contact with the barriers.
Drivers remained in the garage for an elongated period once Sargeant’s car was retrieved, with conditions too damp for slick tyres but too dry for Intermediates.
The majority of the field eventually returned to action, on Intermediates, with around 20 minutes of the session remaining.
Conditions improved sufficiently for slicks to be run in the closing stages of the session but overall lap time improvements did not follow owing to the greasy surface in some corners.
Verstappen’s early effort left him a quarter of a second clear of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez in the overall classification.
Lewis Hamilton was third for Mercedes, ahead of home representatives Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso.
Mercedes’ George Russell was sixth, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda.
McLaren’s Lando Norris – who was first onto slicks after the Intermediate spell of the session – rounded out the top 10.
Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix is scheduled for 16:00 local time
