Bottas misses most of final practice, Raikkonen fastest

Lewis Hamilton has sealed what could turn out to be a crucial pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix after edging out championship rival Sebastian Vettel. "Very tricky conditions today", said Raikkonen.

Lewis Hamilton heaped praise on his Mercedes team on Friday after he and team-mate Valtteri Bottas dominated practice ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix. "We still suffered a but from that but, apart from that, things have been running smoothly, the auto feels good, so it's up to me to make it better". A busy morning and a big thank you to the team.

Ferrari also have a series of aerodynamic changes on their auto, as do Red Bull, who are hopeful their upgrade will clos the one-second gap that has separated them from the front-runners so far this season. If you ever see the auto stripped there's a lot of bits and bobs that need to be reconnected so it's a miracle they got me out.

"Unbelievable, they did an engine change in under two hours. We could have had pole today, so not the ideal end, but if I consider where we were this morning, I think it is a really good recovery". Bottas produced a good attempt on his first timed lap of the day to go fourth quickest, 0.273s slower than his teammate.

"But, one thing is for sure - we have a very fast race auto and a fast qualifying vehicle".

The first runs of both Ferrari drivers were also sub-1:20s, as was that of Red Bull's Max Verstappen. "We will see what we can do tomorrow from here".

"It's a circuit that is hard to overtake but we'll try to get a position", added the Spaniard, working his fans into a flurry of excitement.

Two of the Force India drivers finished in the top ten with Sergio Perez at eighth while another Esteban Ocon ended at tenth, less than a second behind Felippe Massa. While his team-mate, Stoffel Vandoorne, was in 19th place, the Spaniard was only a 10th of a second from putting his vehicle in seventh place in Q2 and then went on to achieve that when it mattered.

On a rollercoaster afternoon, the German missed out on a second successive pole by a mere 0.051 of a second after locking up and running wide at the final chicane.

Spaniard Carlos Sainz was ninth for Toro Rosso ahead of his compatriot and local hero two-time champion Fernando Alonso in his troubled McLaren-Honda, a strong showing in front of their home fans. "Amazing", he said sarcastically after the second session".

Trailing Mercedes throughout Friday, Ferrari hit back with the top two times heading into qualifying.

Although Ferrari came to the fore in Saturday's final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, there was drama for Vettel.