Hamilton, Bearman crash in final Madrid F1 practice
Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli headed a final Spanish Grand Prix practice session at the Madring featuring two red flags, including one for a Lewis Hamilton crash at the final corner.
Antonelli ended up 0.166s clear of Hamilton's Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, the long-time pacesetter before the first red flag and after the session resumed, with the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris improving to third and fourth in that period too.
But Hamilton's crash was the session's most noteworthy moment - even if Ollie Bearman's late red-flag inducing crash was the biggest of the Madring weekend yet.
Hamilton had just set the fastest middle sector of all (which still stood as the fastest at the end of the session) when he crashed at the final corner 23 minutes into FP3, locking up and heading nose-first, square-on into the Tecpro barrier.
Lewis Hamilton locks up and hits the barrier! 😳
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2026
Here is how the incident unfolded... 👀#F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/YDTN59NAlC
He found reverse gear from there and, despite protestations from Ferrari to stop the car, attempted to limp his SF-26 back to the pits.
With the front wing rubbing against the front-right tyre, which became punctured, Hamilton did eventually park the Ferrari at Turn 14 - though only after he was told by race engineer Carlo Santi: "It's a formal request, they [the FIA] told us to stop in the safest place possible. Stop before Turn 12 [La Monumental], on the left."
Repairs to the barrier took a significant amount of time, which prompted race control to take the unusual step of pausing the clock to prevent the session time from elapsing before track activity could continue on what is only the second day of official F1 running at the track.
FP3 did finally resume 39 minutes after the red flag was shown with a quarter of an hour left on the clock, a period in which Leclerc improved his best time before Antonelli set the fastest lap of the weekend so far, a 1m32.797s.
Any further changes to the head of the order were prevented by Bearman's crash, which came at Turn 10, the first part of a right-left leading into the circuit's banked La Monumental corner.
Bearman did not appear to clip the wall but lost the car at the apex and spun, which pitched his car backwards into the barrier on the outside of the subsequent left-hand bend.
He was assured by his Haas team afterwards not to worry and that the team would "get it rebuilt" before qualifying, but significant damage to the left-hand side of his car suggested that is far from guaranteed.
Max Verstappen completed just seven laps in the session but ended up fifth-fastest in the best of the Red Bulls, two places but more than seven tenths faster than team-mate Liam Lawson. George Russell was sandwiched between them in the second of the Mercedes cars.
Hamilton's time was still good enough for ninth, with the Audis of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto either side of him.
Alex Albon was the only driver not to set a time. He glanced the barrier with the left-hand side of his car exiting the penultimate corner and could not rejoin the session, even after the long pause in proceedings.
Session results
1 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1m32.797s
2 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.166s
3 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.189s
4 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.236s
5 Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) +0.375s
6 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.702s
7 Liam Lawson (Red Bull Racing) +1.105s
8 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +1.136s
9 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +1.487s
10 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +1.491s
11 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +1.549s
12 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.633s
13 Oliver Bearman (Haas) +1.684s
14 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +1.708s
15 Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) +1.768s
16 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +2.174s
17 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +2.223s
18 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +2.667s
19 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +2.773s
20 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +3.644s
21 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +3.873s
22 Alexander Albon (Williams) — no time
