diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9a19d88afb..c3e16d2e07 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ http://webconsole.spockframework.org.
 
 Latest Versions
 ---------------
-The latest release version is **1.2-RC2** (1.2-RC2-groovy-2.4, 1.2-RC2-groovy-2.5), released on 2018-08-14. The
+The latest release version is **1.2-RC3** (1.2-RC3-groovy-2.4, 1.2-RC3-groovy-2.5), released on 2018-09-16. The
 current development version is **1.2-SNAPSHOT** (1.2-groovy-2.4-SNAPSHOT and 1.2-groovy-2.5-SNAPSHOT).
 
 **NOTE:** Spock 1.2 drops support for Java 6, Groovy 2.0 and Groovy 2.3.
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index a9851bb933..9de9ad0184 100755
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@ description = "Spock Framework"
 
 ext {
   baseVersion = "1.2"
-  snapshotVersion = true
-  releaseCandidate = 0
+  snapshotVersion = false
+  releaseCandidate = 3
   variants = [2.4, 2.5]
   variant = System.getProperty("variant") as BigDecimal ?: variants.first()
   if (variant == 2.4) {
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ ext {
     groovyConsoleExtraDependency = []  //bundled in groovy-all
   } else if (variant == 2.5) {
     groovyVersion = "2.5.2"
-    minGroovyVersion = "2.5.2"
+    minGroovyVersion = "2.5.0"
     groovyDependency = [
       "org.codehaus.groovy:groovy:${groovyVersion}",
       "org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-json:${groovyVersion}",
diff --git a/docs/release_notes.adoc b/docs/release_notes.adoc
index a3ed599178..f12dc8ff97 100644
--- a/docs/release_notes.adoc
+++ b/docs/release_notes.adoc
@@ -2,11 +2,19 @@
 include::include.adoc[]
 
 
-== 1.2-RC3 (tbd)
+== 1.2-RC3 (2018-09-16)
 
 === What's New In This release
 
-* Improve `@PendingFeature` to now have an optional `reason` attribute
+* Add support for Java 11+ (#895, #902, #903)
+* Improve `@PendingFeature` to now have an optional `reason` attribute (#907)
+* Fix use String renderer for Class instances (#909)
+* Fix mark new Spring extensions as @Beta (#890)
+* Fix exclude groovy-groovysh from compile dependencies (#882)
+
+
+Thanks to all the contributors to this release: Marc Philipp, Marcin Zajączkowski, signalw
+
 
 == 1.2-RC2 (2018-09-04)