F1 Madness

Tag: free practice 3

  • Vettel Out in Front After FP3 For Azerbaijan GP

    Vettel Out in Front After FP3 For Azerbaijan GP

    After struggling to get in the groove on Saturday, Sebastian Vettel took the honours in FP3 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

    Vettel set a session best time of 1:43.091 on the ultra soft tyres. Championship rival Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes was 2nd fastest with a best time of 1:43.452, 0.361s off the pace. Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkone was 3rd fastest 0.402s of the pace.

    Max Verstappen was 4th fastest after setting a time late in the session narrowly edging out Valtteri Bottas in 5th. Team mate Ricciardo who showed strong pace on Friday was 12th.

    The battle of the mid-field is heating up nicely with Force India continuing their strong showing this weekend with Sergio Perez 6th fastest just ahead of Kevin Magnussen in the Haas in 7th. Lance Stroll getting in the mix with his Williams in 8th while the second Force India of Esteban Ocon finished 9th.

    Rounding out the top 10 was Sergei Sirotkin in the second Williams. His session was cut short after making contact with the Turn 3 exit barrier, damaging the front left suspension of his car. The Williams mechanics have a race on their hands to get his car ready for qualifying.

    Elsewhere on track a tail wind in the final corner caused some issues for the driver with many running wide. Romain Grosjean was caught out and spun at the exit of T19.

    Vettel has seem to have found a setup he is comfortable with and it looks like it’s brought Ferrari back in the fight. Mercedes seem to be struggling for rear grip in the middle sector while Red Bull’s only weakness is the long straight. Qualifying is shaping up to be a nail biter.

     

  • Vettel Fastest in Final Chinese GP Practice

    Vettel Fastest in Final Chinese GP Practice

    After a closely contested Free Practice 2, Sebastian Vettel pulled clear of the pack and set the fastest time in FP3 for the Chinese Grand Prix.

    Vettel’s quickest time of 1:33.018 put him 0.451s clear of team mate Kimi Raikkonen who was second fastest with a 1:33.469. Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes was 3rd fastest 0.743s off the pace.

    Verstappen’s best time was a 1:33.969 nearly a second down on Vettel while Hamilton finished 5th fastest just over a second off the pace.

    Magnussen was best of the rest for the session in 6th for Haas ahead of Sergio Perez in the Force India. Esteban Ocon was 8th fastest.

    Carlos Sainz continues quietly with his good pace over the weekend by getting his car again into the top 10, this time 9th fasetest while Sergei Sirotkin in the Williams rounded out the top 10.

    Conditions this morning in Shanghai were quite cold but drivers were keen to get out and start setting times. After the rains last night the rubber on the track was washed away and the drivers were presented with a clean track this morning. The low track temperatures certainly affected some of the drivers’ runs on the harder compound tyres.

    Hamilton was struggling for grip on the soft tyres. He had a few wide moments at Turn 10 and a few lock-ups. It was capped by a spin at the exit of Turn 10. It was not just Hamilton, Bottas was struggling for pace as well and the Mercedes cars did not look comfortable in the cold conditions.

    If a speed differential was giving Red Bull headaches, Ricciardo’s engine problem compounded things further. The Australian’s car had thick white smoke billowing out of the back. The Red Bull mechanics were lucky enough to get the car back and could start with the engine change before qualifying.

    Ferrari look like they have the pace advantage over one lap if the times in FP3 are anything to go by, but Mercedes will come back and mount a challenge to the scarlet cars.

  • Vettel Tops Wet and Dry Free Practice 3

    Vettel Tops Wet and Dry Free Practice 3

    A wet start with a rapidly drying track with 15mins left in session has left a few more unknowns after the 3rd free practice session for the 2018 Australian Grand Prix.

    It meant that the Ferrari’s who switched to the ultra soft tyres before the end of the session topped the time sheet with Sebastian Vettel setting a session best time of 1:26.067 and team mate Kimi Raikkonnen a further 2.432s off Vettel’s time with a 1:28.499. Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber was the only other driver to post a lap on dry weather tyres, finished third fastest with a time of 1:28.890.

    The session started wet with a few initial installation laps on the full wets. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso went straight out on the intermediates.

    The Mercedes pair were out on intermediates and traded fastest laps as usual. Force India on the other hand saw no value in taking part in the session and both their drivers were confined to the garage.

    There was some trouble for Lance Stroll but the team did a great job to get him out after a gearbox issue saw him sit out part of the session.

    Vettel’s lap will give Mercedes something to think about even though it was no where near the times set yesterday in the dry. Red Bull who were hoping for rain didn’t quite show their hand in the wet. Qualifying is expected to be dry where Mercedes is expected to be clear ahead. It’s a question of who is going to line up behind them.

     

  • Bottas Fastest in Final Free Practice Session at Japanese GP

    Bottas Fastest in Final Free Practice Session at Japanese GP

    Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time for the final free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix but crashed out with just over half an out to go in the session.

    Bottas set a 1:29.055 on the super softs in the Mercedes, 0.014s faster than team mate Lewis Hamilton. On, what looked like his second go at a timed lap, the Finn ran wide at T14 (Spoon) and dipped a wheel on the wet astro turf. This dragged him further off the track and on to the grass on the run down to 130R. He then tagged the barrier with the rear right, which pivoted the car around which caused the front right to make contact with the barrier. He was able to make it back to the pits.

    The session was red flagged as the marshals cleaned the track and inspected the barriers.

    Just when the session restarted, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was the next one to experience the ruthlessness of the Suzuka circuit. Raikkonen, on a flying lap, carried too much speed into Degner 2, which swung the rear of the car around under braking. He managed to catch the slide but in doing so went across the gravel and clouted the barrier damaging the rear left wishbone. This brought out the second red flag of the session.

    There’s is no word on any gearbox change on Raikkonen’s car due to the contact with the barrier.

    Sebastian Vettel set a time late in the session to go P3. After another go at a fast lap Vettel improved to a 1:29.379 which is still 0.324s off the benchmark set by Bottas.

    The two Red Bull’s who were running different setups were 4th and 5th with Verstappen ahead of Ricciardo by 0.108s. According to Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner, the Red Bulls are the fastest cars through the corners but were losing about half a second of time down the straights.

    Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez made the top 10 for Force India with Ocon finishing 6th fastest and Perez 10th.

    Nico Hulkenberg got the Renault once again into the top 10 finishing 7th fastest ahead of an 8th placed Fernando Alonso in the McLaren.

    The red flags did break the momentum of the session somewhat. One feels that the times could have been faster this session.

    Mercedes look comfortable up front with their package and Hamilton looks set to take pole position with Sebastian Vettel joining him on the front row.

    The cloudy conditions are set to persist throughout the afternoon so we could see a dry qualifying session.

  • Massa Fastest in Rain Soaked Italian Grand Prix Free Practice 3

    Massa Fastest in Rain Soaked Italian Grand Prix Free Practice 3

    Felipe Massa finished fastest of a rain shortened Free Practice 3 ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll.

    Heavy rain forced Race Director Charlie Whiting to delay the start of Free Practice 3 indefinitely. White the timer for the session ticked down the safety car was sent out a few times to assess the situation out on track. The standing water and rain meant the session was delayed for 44-minutes.

    The session eventually got underway with 16-minutes left on the clock.

    Drivers went out for installation laps with a few setting times. Towards the end of the session a few more times were posted with Williams’ Felipe Massa posting the fastest time of 1:40.660. Lance Stroll was the second fastest 0.228s down on his team mate.

    Nico Hulkenberg was 3rd fastest for Renault almost a second down with his best time of 1:41.491. His team mate Jolyon Palmer finished 5th fastest split by the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz in 4th.

    Marcus Ericsson ended his session 6th fastest for Sauber with Daniil Kvyat in 7th in the second Toro Rosso.

    There were no times posted by the other drivers.

    The weather forecast for qualifying is expected to improve slightly but the track will undoubtedly be damp

  • Hamilton Keeps Mercedes Ahead in 3rd Free Practice for British Grand Prix

    Hamilton Keeps Mercedes Ahead in 3rd Free Practice for British Grand Prix

    Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time for the 3rd Free Practice session for the British Grand Prix with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel just 0.032s slower.

    The session got underway under cloudy and windy conditions with and 80% chance of rain forecast for the session. Drivers were out setting times quite early in the session before the rain. The rain did eventually start falling with about 17mins left in the session.

    Hamilton’s time of 1:28.063 on the super softs gave him the top spot. Behind him Valtteri Bottas crossed the line just 0.074s slower than Hamilton in 1:28.137. Vettel was on a very quick lap behind the Mercedes pair and set the fastest 1st and 2nd sectors to go on and split the Mercedes drivers finishing just 0.032s off Hamilton’s benchmark. Vettel’s best time of 1:28.095, split the Mercedes and gave him the 2nd fastest spot of the session.

    Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished 4th fastest more than half a second off the pace ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg in 5th.

    Red Bull were slightly caught out by the rain later in the session with Max Verstappen but Daniel Ricciardo was able to set a time on the super softs to place him 6th fastest. Verstappen caught the rain on his flying lap on the super softs and went off at Turn 6 bringing out the yellow flags. His time of 1:29.904 was set on the soft tyres and earned him 8th place.

    Splitting the Red Bulls was Haas’ Romain Grosjean in 7th.

    Rounding out the top 10 was Felipe Massa in the Williams and Stoffel Vandoorne in the McLaren. Vandoorne this time just edging out Alonso for the top 10 spot.

    The rain that started falling in the last 17mins of FP3 is forecast to stop well before qualifying. We are expecting a dry track for qualifying but we just may see things mixed up with the rain.

  • Ferrari Finish 1-2 in Final Canadian GP Practice

    Ferrari Finish 1-2 in Final Canadian GP Practice

    Sebastian Vettel lead a Ferrari 1-2 finish for the final free practice session for Canadian Grand Prix ahead of qualifying later this afternoon.

    Vettel set the pace earlier in the session with his lap time continuing to get faster. Raikkonen kept close to Vettel’s times but after his final timed runs on the ultra soft finished the session 2nd fastest 0.292s off Vettel’s 1:12.572.

    Hamilton finished the session 3rd fastest with his fastest time of 1:12.926, was 0.354s off the pace. Mercedes seemed to struggle with tyre warm up with Hamilton and Bottas going for 2-lap warm up. Bottas was 5th fastest at the end of the session with Max Verstappen in the Red Bull between the Mercedes in 4th.

    Nico Hulkenberg showed some good one lap pace to put his Renault into 6th fastest ahead of the Williams of Felipe Massa in 7th.

    Daniel Ricciardo who complete the most laps from all the drivers this session was keen to maximize his track time after technical issues limited his track time yesterday. He finished 8th fastest 0.973s off the pace.

    Esteban Ocon continued to impress finishing 9th fastest beating his team mate Sergio Perez who could only manage 13th fastest.

    Carlos Sainz finished off the top 10 just a little over one-second off the pace.

    From the outset is looks as if Ferrari have the upper hand going into qualifying and a Ferrari front row lockout seems likely. Mercedes do look like they’re holding back on some pace and despite being three-tenths down, they may just edge Ferrari come Q3 when they unleash their Q3 engine mode.

  • Raikkonen Claims Top Spot in Free Practice 3 for Spanish GP

    Raikkonen Claims Top Spot in Free Practice 3 for Spanish GP

    Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished on top of the time sheets ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel for the 3rd Free Practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

    Raikkonen set a time of 1:20.214 to go 0.242s clear of team mate Vettel who set a 1:20.456 as his best time of the session. Although not the neatest lap from Raikkonen it was good enough to give him the top spot on the time sheets.

    Vettel’s session was cut short after the team detected an issue with his telemetry data just as he was about to take to the track. The German stopped the car in the pit lane and was pushed back into the pits. Ferrari say that there was no real issue with the engine but parts will be changed as a precaution.

    Finishing the session 3rd and 4th fastest was the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton was 0.381s off the pace after a few untidy laps. Bottas, who sat out most of the session after the team had found an electrical issue with his car after FP2, managed 4th fastest after coming out quite late in the session. The Finn is running the same engine he ran for the first 4 races of the season after the team opted to replace his engine last night after breaking curfew. The team found that the replacement engine had another issue with it which forced them to revert to the old engine.

    The two Red Bull’s finished in 5th and 6th with Max Verstappen leading Daniel Ricciardo. In 7th fastest is the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg followed by the Williams of Felipe Massa in 8th.

    Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso finished 9th fastest with Fernando Alonso in the McLaren in 10th.

    Just missing out on a top 10 spot was Romain Grosjean in 11th in the Haas followed by his team mate Kevin Magnussen in 12th.

    The Force India pair of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon were 13th and 14th respectively. It didnt seem like they were struggling and we should see one of them make Q3.

    While his team mate broke into the top 10, Daniil Kvyat in the second Toro Rosso could only manage 15th ahead of the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson in 16th.

    Lance Stroll was 17th for Williams with Jolyon Palmer 18th for Renault.

    Bringing up the rear was Stoffel Vandoorne in the McLaren ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in the Sauber.

    It seems as though Ferrari have turned a corner with their setup and both drivers seem more comfortable in the car. Mercedes still look like they will have the upper hand come qualifying. It should be noted that the Red Bulls looked very strong in the final few corners and could be closer to the Ferrari’s in qualifying.

     

     

     

    Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula One

  • Vettel Fastest in Shortened Australain GP 3rd Free Practice

    Vettel Fastest in Shortened Australain GP 3rd Free Practice

    Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time for the 3rd Free Practice session for the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Qualifying this afternoon.

    Vettel’s time of 1:23.380 was the fastest lap of the session and is now the fastest time around the Albert Park Circuit. His Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen finished 4th fastest after a puncture curtailed his run. Interestingly enough, Ferrari only ran the ultra soft tyre the entire session.

    Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas finished 2nd fastest ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Bottas set a 1:23.859 which was 0.479s off Vettel’s time with Hamilton a further 0.490s off.

    In 5th was Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who produced a very quick lap on the ultra softs to cross the line in 1:25.063. This pace is encouraging for the Enstone team, but Jolyon Palmer in the second Renault could only manage 19th fastest after some issues with his car.

    In a rather quiet session for Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo set the 6th fastest time that was 1.712s slower than Vettel’s time. Red Bull seem to be struggling with the car setup and balance with Max Verstappen complaining that there was mid corner under-steer. Verstappen finished his session 12th fastest.

    The two Toro Rosso’s of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat finished 8th and 9th respectively sandwiched by the two Haas drivers of Romain Grosjean in 7th and Kevin Magnussen in 10th.

    The session ended early after William’s Lance Stroll tagged the barrier at the exit of Turn 10. Stroll running a bit wide into T10, took a little too much kerb. He got on the power a little too early and the rear stepped out and smacked the barrier damaging the rear right suspension.

    There were incidents throughout the session with McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne taking a trip through the gravel and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen coming to a stop at T14 after a puncture. The Finn switched off his Ferrari and restarted it using the MGU-K. He limped back to the pits with a clearly deflating rear left tyre.

    The scene is set for qualifying. Ferrari have shown some pace while Mercedes have had a couple bags of sand in their cars and will undoubtedly turn up the engine to eleven for Qualifying. We’ll finally know if Mercedes are the team to beat this year.

     

     

    Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula One

  • Rosberg Ahead in Brazil GP Free Practice 3

    Rosberg Ahead in Brazil GP Free Practice 3

    Nico Rosberg took the honors for the fastest time in the third free practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

    The session got off to a slow start after some rain earlier in the day left the track damp in some places. The damp track seen drivers venture out on the full wets for installation laps. A few laps on the full wets was quickly followed by slick tyres.

    Rosberg was just 9 hundredths of a second faster than team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Rosberg’s time of 1:11.740 was 0.093s faster than Hamilton who set a best time of 1:11.833. Rosberg’s time came on his second go at a flying lap where he found some time.

    After a very disappointing showing of pace in yesterday’s sessions, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was 3rd fastest 0.219s off the pace with a 1:11.959. Once again there was not much between the two Ferrari drivers with Kimi Raikkonen 4th fastest with a session best time of 1:12.027. Raikkonen held the fastest lap early on in the session until the second round of soft tyre runs.

    The Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo finished 5th and 6th fastest respectively. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was 7th fastest with team-mate Felipe Massa in 9th. Splitting the Williams was Renault’s Jolyon Palmer in 8th.

    Finishing off the top 10 was McLaren’s Fernando Alonso. Alonso’s session had a slight delayed start after gearbox issue on his car. He was out on track with 30mins left in the session. His team mate Jenson Button’s session was riddled with issues. Button struggled with front grip and front warming. Towards the end of the session he was told to stop the car. Button managed to nurse the car back to the pits which brought his session to an early end.

    Sauber had issues with both their cars. Early on in the session Felipe Nasr was called in with a problem on his car. Nasr was back out after a few mins. The team, however, found a problem with Ericsson’s engine and found they would have to replace the engine before qualifying.

    After struggling for pace yesterday, Ferrari look like they’re in a better position for fight for the second row of the grid. It does look like the cooler temperatures suit the Ferrari better than the warmer conditions we saw yesterday. Red Bull do look like they have the edge on Ferrari and are expected to have both their cars ahead of Ferrari at the end of Qualifying.

    Pos. Driver Team Best Time Gap Laps
    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:11.740s –

    19
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:11.833s +0.093s

    21
    3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:11.959s +0.219s

    14
    4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:12.027s +0.287s

    16
    5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:12.077s +0.337s

    19
    6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:12.287s +0.547s

    21
    7 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:12.614s +0.874s

    27
    8 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:12.968s +1.228s

    19
    9 Felipe Massa Williams 1:12.990s +1.250s

    26
    10 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:13.002s +1.262s

    12
    11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:13.203s +1.463s

    14
    12 Sergio Perez Force India 1:13.231s +1.491s

    19
    13 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:13.255s +1.515s

    15
    14 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:13.293s +1.553s

    20
    15 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:13.344s +1.604s

    15
    16 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:13.596s +1.856s

    16
    17 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:13.609s +1.869s

    13
    18 Jenson Button McLaren 1:13.750s +2.010s

    9
    19 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:13.972s +2.232s

    20
    20 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:13.992s +2.252s

    14
    21 Esteban Ocon Manor 1:14.222s +2.482s

    21
    22 Marcus Ericsson Sauber – –

    1