George Russell topped the timesheets during the morning of day three in Barcelona and also completed the highest number of laps.

Clearer conditions greeted the start of day three after a rain-soaked morning previously disrupted running, finally allowing teams to head back out on track in dry weather.

After only Red Bull and Ferrari took part yesterday, the field expanded significantly today, with several teams joining the action — most notably McLaren, which made its long-awaited on-track debut with the MCL40, driven by Lando Norris.

The session was not without interruptions, however, as two red flags halted running. Audi suffered another problem when Nico Hulkenberg was forced to stop his RS26 on circuit, while Oliver Bearman also came to a standstill at Turn 2, with the cause of his stoppage still unclear.

Photo: Race Pictures

Meanwhile, the Milton Keynes-based squad confirmed it would not take part in today’s running following Isack Hadjar’s crash yesterday, which prompted a revision of the team’s plans.

The benchmark time was initially set by Colapinto, who reportedly stopped the clocks at an unofficial 1:19.150 in his A526. However, late in the session George Russell reportedly delivered an impressive 1:17.580, while also racking up a total of 92 laps.

As for the rest, Arvid Lindblad completed 61 laps, Colapinto logged 56, while Norris managed 33 laps at the wheel of the MCL40.

Keep following the on-track action this afternoon

With the third morning session now in the books, teams are gearing up to complete their planned running in the afternoon, with outfits such as McLaren — which logged limited mileage earlier — expected to start adding more laps.

It remains to be seen whether Audi and Haas will be able to return to the track after the issues encountered this morning, or if their day is already over.

For all the latest updates, keep following our live coverage in the liveblog.

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