Lando Norris hit by old F1 nemesis as Oscar Piastri sizzles in Spain

Oscar Piastri comfortably took the honours in final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix to set himself as the man to beat going into qualifying at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

Piastri set the fastest lap of the event to date with a time of 1:12.387s, albeit still a second slower than McLaren team-mate Lando Norris' pole position effort from a year ago.

The championship-leading Australian finished 0.526s clear of Norris, who was hit by a moment of F1's old nemesis when the current regulations were first introduced in 2022 - porpoising.

Seemingly eradicated over the intervening period, Norris suffered a serious moment going into Turn 9 that forced him to take to the escape road.

It appeared as if the car had simply bottomed out, however, he was informed over the radio it was porpoising and he should box in order for his team to raise the rear ride-height of his MCL39.

Behind a one-two for the McLaren duo, albeit a chasm apart, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was third fastest ahead of George Russell in his Mercedes and Red Bull's Max Verstappen, with Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar the only other driver within a second of Piastri.

In searing conditions, with many umbrellas up in the exposed grandstands to shelter fans from the 29-degree heat, there was little entertainment on show for the opening 15 minutes.

During that period, only two cars conducted any meaningful running - Alpine's Franco Colapinto and Stake's Gabriel Bortoleto - with the latter 0.150s quicker than his rival with a lap of 1:15.224s on medium rubber.

As time elapsed, the remaining drivers slowly filtered out on track, and appreciably, the lap times improved as first Esteban Ocon in his Haas, and then Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda, went quicker, before Norris stepped up with a 1:14.540s on the yellow-striped Pirellis.

On soft tyres, first Williams' Carlos Sainz, and then Leclerc set the pace, the latter with a 1:13.869s, before Russell delivered a more representative lap of 1:13.396s, albeit at that stage still six-tenths of a second slower than Piastri's leading time from Friday.

Just as Russell set his time, Piastri, 11th quickest on medium tyres and a second down, was forced to box after complaining over the radio about something hard on his seat under his left leg.

Soon after, and on his first timed lap after spending the opening 28 minutes in the garage, Kimi Antonelli set the second-best time, yet 0.429s behind team-mate Russell.

There followed a period of long running either on softs or mediums for almost all the drivers for a period until Verstappen strapped on a set of softs with 20 minutes remaining and ousted long-time leader Russell from the top spot by 0.021s.

As the qualifying sims started to unfold, Norris looked set to edge ahead of Verstappen after posting the fastest first sector, only for his car to suffer a severe switch on the approach to Turn 9, forcing him to take to the escape road.

Home hero Fernando Alonso then purpled sectors two and three, but a slow first meant he was unable to oust Verstappen, finishing 0.039s adrift.

A second push lap from Norris allowed him to comfortably move ahead of Verstappen by four-tenths. He was then informed it was porpoising that threw him off course on his first lap. Although he returned to the pits, he never made it back on track.

Piastri then lit up the timing screen with 11 minutes remaining with a full purple lap to set the quickest of the weekend to that point with a 1:12.387s, and so it remained.

Behind sixth-placed Hadjar were Antonelli and Alonso, whilst Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton was only ninth, 1.140s behind Piastri, and more relevantly four-tenths behind team-mate Leclerc.

Liam Lawson rounded out the top 10 in his Racing Bulls, whilst Oliver Bearman was slowest in his Haas, two seconds off the pacve.

That ended Colapinto's run of five successive practice sessions in being the slowest on track.