F1-EL3: Felipe Massa leads a tight pack

The final free practice session in Barcelona allowed the teams to complete their simulations for the race before devoting the final minutes to one-lap performance. The hierarchy between the two configurations seems similar between the teams and the differences remain particularly small in both conditions.

If Kimi Räikkönen produced a superb lap, Felipe Massa nevertheless finished at the top of the last session with a time of 1'21"901 and six thousandths ahead of the Lotus driver. Red Bull is present at the forefront since Mark Webber is in third place in front Romain Grosjean, the Australian and the French only being a tenth behind. Sebastian Vettel et Fernando Alonso, the two big contenders for victory this weekend, follow three tenths ahead of the Force India of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil who still seem to be in the game.

The Mercedes are further behind since Lewis Hamilton is only in ninth place and Nico Rosberg is the last driver less than a second behind the reference time. The Silver Arrows surround the Toro Rosso STR8 by Jean-Eric Vergne who has not left the top ten since the start of testing. McLaren still seems to be in difficulty since Jenson Button only finished in 12th place while Sergio Pérez failed in 14th place. The Mexican also suffered from a steering problem causing him to lose valuable time in the pits. Williams F1 Team is still struggling to distinguish itself, Pastor Maldonado climbing painfully into 15th position.

Caterham F1 Team seems to maintain the advantage over Marussia. Charles Pic won the 19th time but the Frenchman is only a few thousandths ahead of his compatriot Jules Bianchi.

Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix will begin at 14 p.m. and can be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr.