Oscar Piastri leads the way in Barcelona ahead of qualifying

Oscar Piastri laid down an ominous marker to McLaren team-mate Lando Norris after he finished half-a-second clear of the British driver in final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Piastri, who leads Norris by three points in the world championship, set the fastest time in practice at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Friday.

And the Australian led the way again on Saturday, ending the one-hour running 0.526 seconds ahead of Norris, who made a mistake on his hot lap, in the other McLaren.

McLaren have won six of the eight rounds so far, and their rivals might have hoped that a clampdown on flexible front wings – which some believe has contributed to the British team’s rise – would slow them down.

However, the evidence of the rule tweak introduced for this race appears to have done little to influence McLaren’s speed.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished 0.743 sec behind Piastri in third, one place ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, with world champion Max Verstappen fifth – albeit the best part of one second behind.

Lewis Hamilton’s struggles continued after he finished ninth, 1.1 sec off the pace.

Qualifying gets under way at 16:00 local time (15:00 BST).