Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton led a tightly-contested Mercedes 1-2 during final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, as Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley crashed heavily.
Hamilton posted a time of 1:17.281, despite drifting slightly wide onto the exit kerb at the chicane, to get within a tenth of the fastest lap recorded during pre-season testing.
Hamilton was on course to improve his time on his next push lap until he suffered a sideways moment entering the chicane and backed off.
Hamilton wound up 0.013s clear of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the conclusion of the Supersoft laps, as Ferrari finished 3-4, with Sebastian Vettel edging Kimi Raikkonen.
Vettel finished 0.269s behind Hamilton, with a slender 0.031s gap back to Raikkonen.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was fifth-quickest while Max Verstappen, who faces an investigation for not staying to the left of the bollard upon rejoining the track at Turn 2, was only 12th after sticking to Medium rubber.
The session came to a premature conclusion after Hartley crashed his Toro Rosso on the entry to the uphill right-hander at Turn 9.
Hartley dipped a wheel onto the grass as he entered the corner and was sent into a spin, eventually making rear-end contact with the barriers.
The rear of Hartley’s STR13 suffered substantial damage, with the parts of the power unit falling out as marshals craned the stricken car onto a recovery vehicle.
Hartley was able to walk away uninjured.
Haas led the midfield contingent once again, with sixth-placed Kevin Magnussen a second behind Hamilton, and three-tenths clear of Romain Grosjean.
Grosjean had another excursion through the gravel, this time at Turn 7, while Carlos Sainz Jr., Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.
Nico Hulkenberg placed 11th – having been baulked by Sainz Jr. on his final push lap – ahead of the aforementioned Verstappen, Force India’s Esteban Ocon and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne.
Charles Leclerc underlined Sauber’s Q2 potential by taking 15th, with Sergio Perez 16th, and the crashed Hartley 17th.
Marcus Ericsson was 18th, as Williams duo Lance Stroll – having recovered from a trip through the Turn 4 gravel – and Sergey Sirotkin again finished at the back, 2.6s off the ultimate pace.
Qualifying will begin at 15:00 local time (GMT +2)
