George Russell on top ahead of qualifying as Kimi Antonelli faces investigation

George Russell has ended the final practice session from Barcelona on top of the timesheets as he puts himself in the strongest position ahead of qualifying.

The Mercedes driver enjoyed a more positive session than team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who faced traffic on his qualifying simulations towards the end of the session.

Amid his frustrations, the stewards deemed that he may have driven erratically, and will now be investigated after the session.

Oscar Piastri was second on the road, two-tenths down on Piastri, while Charles Leclerc got himself up into the top three for Ferrari.

The drivers were in no rush to get out of the garage at the start of the session, with the Cadillacs the only entries to appear in the opening minutes.

It took some 20 minutes before more started to peel out and tune their cars in ahead of qualifying later today.

It was one of the Cadillacs who caused the session's sole red flag as with 20 minutes to go, Valtteri Bottas suffered a brake failure and became stuck in the gravel.

When the green flag was waved once more, the drivers emerged back out onto the track to complete their preparations for qualifying.

With the top three seeing three different manufacturers, Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Max Verstappen was sixth in the leading Red Bull, while his team-mate Isack Hadjar placed himself in eighth amid complaints of understeer.

Antonelli found himself lodged between the two Red Bulls but entered qualifying underprepared compared to the rest of his front-running rivals.

Audi enjoyed another strong session with Nico Hulkenberg sneaking his way into ninth place, ahead of rookie Arvid Lindblad, who rounded out the top 10.

It was another highly challenging session for Aston Martin, who was significantly off the pace during the 60-minute session.

Lance Stroll was the slowest driver of all, lapping 4.4 seconds down on Russell.