Tag: fp3 timesheet

Hamilton remains dominant in third practice session

Lewis Hamilton continued to stamp his authority over the rest of the Formula One grid, and most importantly his teammate in the third practice ahead of the US Grand Prix.

Hamilton’s time was a country mile of 0.844s quicker than Rosberg’s and he will enter qualifying this evening as the favourite to take pole position.

The Mercedes pair were once again in an entirely different league with William’ Felipe Massa another 1.107s behind in 3rd place. His teammate Valterri Bottas, finished just after him in fourth place.

Fernando Alonso completed a pretty untidy lap to go fifth fastest, over 1.6secs off the pace. He found himself with his Ferrari swinging into a wild slide while he was coming out of hte first corner which completely compromised his first sector.

His Ferrari swung into a wild slide coming out of the first corner, which cost him time through the rest of the opening sector, and saw him running off the track at the penultimate corner.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was sixth fastest with his teammate Sebastian Vettel holding up the spot at the bottom of the timesheets. Vettel is expected to complete just one lap in qualifying as a complete change of his car’s power unit means he will be forced to start from the pit only a single in lap in qualifying for tomorrow’s race.

Adrian Sutil popped himself in to 8th place on the timesheet ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button. Kevin Magnussen was just outside the top ten and it would seem McLaren is in for a tricky Halloween weekend.

The two Toro Rossos were both off pace and are facing penalties for engine changes, likely leaving them at the back of the grid.

Your full timesheet is below.

November 1, 2014
Rosberg leads the pack in final practice

Nico Rosberg topped the time sheets during the final practice ahead of qualifying for the German Grand Prix with a time of 1:17.779.

Rosberg’s time is a surprising 0.601 clear of his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Despite a spin in at turn eight halfway through the session, Fernando Alonso recovered to set the third quickest time of the practice session, a mere 0.004 down on Hamilton.

The Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas led much of the practice session on prime tyres, but ended up fourth and fifth respectively after the supersoft runs.

Kevin Magnussen finished sixth after setting the pace during the opening stages of final practice, with Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen behind him.

Raikkonen switched to options very early on, but was unable to continue in the final stages of practice due to a problem with his fuel pump. The Ferrari team are working ferverishly to change the fuel pump before qualifying gets underway.

Red Bull’s performance was either lacklustre, or one big sandbag as reigning world champ Sebastian Vettel parked his car in ninth place.

Nico Hulkenberg took the last spot in the top ten for Force India.

Jenson Button had much complaining about understeer and problems with his braking during practice, most likely a result of no longer having FRIC suspension. None of the teams will be running FRIC this weekend after it was deemed illegal by the FIA earlier this week.

Full timesheet for the session is below. Please join us on Twitter @F1_Madness for qualifying later this afternoon at 14h00 GMT +2.

Photo credit: Mercedes

July 19, 2014
Hamilton fastest in Canadian GP final practice

Lewis Hamilton has finished fastest in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, repeating his earlier performance from FP2.

This time round, however, he was not followed by team mate Nico Rosberg, who had to settle for third place behind Felipe Massa’s flying Williams.

The session started out well, with Magnussen setting the initial pace, but was brought to an abrupt halt when Esteban Gutierrez put his Sauber in the wall and brought out the red flag. The car took a good deal of damage and it’s looking likely that he’ll need a gearbox replacement before qualifying. If this happens, Gutierrez will face a 5 place grid penalty. Marshalls made very quick work of clearing the Sauber and the session was back underway within 5 minutes.

The front-runners headed back out quickly and it was Sergio Perez who was first to better Magnussen’s lap time before Hamilton ripped another seven-tenths off the Force India’s time.

Ferrari enjoyed a few brief moments in the top two spots with Fernando Alonso leading from Kimi Raikkonen, but Hamilton soon put them back in their places by going another half a second quicker.

The two Williams drivers soon joined in the fun at the top as Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas moved up into second and third places, only for Hamilton to once again stomp his authority everwhere and widen the gap by yet another half a second. Rosberg went just six-hundredths faster but with both of them still on the harder tyres, Mercedes clearly still have a massive advantage.

In the final ten minutes of the session, drivers attempted to complete their final qualifying simulations but Rosberg and Hamilton both chose not to set fast times on their supersofts. Felipe Massa jumped himself back into second place behind Hamilton leaving Rosberg to settle for third ahead of Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton’s 4/10s advantage over the rest of the field is on the harder tyres so he’s looking set to claim his 5th pole position of the year. But let’s not forget Rosberg who will be keen to fight back and hold on to the championship lead. We should be in for a great battle between the Mercs up front during qualifying today, with the Williams and Ferrari drivers duking it out for the next few places.

Full timesheet below. Please join us on @F1_Madness for live updates on Twitter.

June 7, 2014
Rosberg leads FP3, Mercedes domination continues

Mercedes sent another strong message to their rivals with Nico Rosberg the messenger during FP3 in Australia ahead of qualifying this morning. Rosberg finished the session a crazy 1.3 seconds ahead of 2nd placed Jenson Button, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finishing the session in 3rd place. Lewis Hamilton finished the session in fourth place but could very easily have made it a 1-2 for Ferrari, had he not run wide at Turn 9 on his second flying lap.

The Mercedes W05 was clearly the fastest car out there on both tyre compounds with both Rosberg and Hamilton comfortably fastest in earlier FP3 running.

Lotus’ woes seem far from over with Romain Grosjean complaining about his engine misfiring, and Pastor Maldonado stopping out on track less than a minute before the chequered flag came out on the session.

Kimi Raikkonen also continued his struggle with his car’s balance, running off the track on more than one occasion and finishing the session in 7th, a full 1.7 seconds off the pace.

Spots of rain threatened just before the green flag on the FP3 session, and a gusty wind made its presence known around the track. Heavy rain is heading for the track just ahead of qualifying which could really impact on how the session will play out.

As always you can join us on Twitter (@F1_Madness) at 7:30am for qualifying build up as well as for live updates throughout the session. We’ll also be around for some post qualifying chat – so do join in!

Here is the full timesheet for FP3:

Photo credit: Mercedes

March 15, 2014
Grosjean ends Hungarian third practice on top

Romain Grosjean headed the timesheets at the third practice before this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix with a time of 1.20.730.

The session was dominated by long fuel runs with teams trying to understand what they can get out of the medium tyre before tomorrow’s race. Sebastian Vettel completed the most laps for the session working hard on his race pace strategy. The Red Bull team seemed very confident for qualifying and did not spend much time working on the soft tyres at all.

A crash in by Perez in the final minutes of the session meant that drivers could not really post their fastest times and saw Fernando Alonso finishing second with a 1.20.898 followed by Perez, Vettel and Massa.

The high temperatures at the Hungaroring are definitely a major talking point ahead of qualifying and the grand prix as teams will need to understand the temperature limit that the Pirelli tyres can handle.

We’re all set for an exciting qualifying session later this afternoon.

Here is the full timesheet for FP3 in Hungary.

July 27, 2013