FP3 Tag

Max Verstappen set the fastest time of a disjointed final practice session at the Circuit of the Americas that saw a number of drivers fail to get in clean qualifying simulations. Verstappen bolted on the supersoft Pirelli tyres with 16 minutes left in the session, at a point when there were just six other cars on track, and the Dutchman used the space well, powering to a lap of 1:36.766. That was good enough to take him 0.266s clear of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo who had first sample the supersofts justRead More

Nico Rosberg made it three sessions from three as he added top spot in final practice for the Japanese Grand Prix to the fastest times he set in both Friday sessions. The championship leader finished FP3 three tenths of a second clear of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo as Lewis Hamilton ended the session in seventh place after failing to get in a clean lap in the final stages on a crowded track. Rain overnight and in the morning left the Suzuka circuit greasy and low on grip and theRead More

Lewis Hamilton continued to set a blistering pace ahead of qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix, eclipsing Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen by almost half a second and beating championship leader Nico Rosberg by more than six tenths of a second. The first portion of the session was dominated by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, with the Australian driver setting an early marker of 1:36.483 on medium tyres. However, until the half hour mark approached neither Mercedes driver had been out on track and when Hamilton and Rosberg eventually appeared, onRead More

Lewis Hamilton beat Nico Rosberg to the top of the final practice timesheets in Monza, with the championship leader finishing almost four tenths of a second clear of his Mercedes team-mate. Rosberg was the first of the Mercedes pairing to show his hand in qualifying trim during the session, posting a time of 1:22.401 with 20 minutes left on the clock. His spell at the top of the order didn’t last long, however, as Hamilton was across the line moments later with a time of 1:22.008. It would remain theRead More

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap of final practice for the British Grand in a session that was red flagged for more than 15 minutes following a heavy crash involving Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson. After a muted first half due to a track that was too damp for slick tyres but not quite wet enough to warrant pushing on intermediates, the track began to get busier as the session began to get busier as conditions improved. Running on the soft tyre, Hamilton slashed two seconds of Sebastian Vettel’s earlier benchmark andRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Nico Rosberg has received a five-place grid penalty after a crash in FP3 forced the Mercedes team to change his gearbox. Rosberg enjoyed a banner Friday after dominating both the first and second practice sessions, but halfway through Saturday’s final practice he suffered suspension failure that sent him into the wall off the Turn 2 exit. The team confirmed that the mechanical failure happened at full throttle under “an unusually high load” on the exit of the curb. The German currently leads defending Formula 1 championRead More

Sebastian Vettel postest the quickest lap of final practice for the Austrian Grand Prix as Nico Rosberg crashed out of the session with a rear-suspension failure. Vettel’s best lap came in the final 10 minutes of the session, the German reclaiming P1 from team-mate Kimi Raikkonen with a time of 1:07.098 at the end of a session dominated by Mercedes. Early in the session championship leader Nico Rosberg had focused on longer runs on the ultrasoft tyre, posting 14 laps on the purple-banded Pirelli in the opening half of theRead More

Lewis Hamilton’s dominance of the Grand Prix of Europe timesheets continued as the Mercedes driver set the fastest time of final practice at the Baku Street Circuit, eclipsing team-mate Nico Rosberg by just over two tenths of a second. The defending champion’s march to the top of the FP3 timesheet wasn’t without issue, however. The Briton struggled for a clean lap in the final minutes of the session and was forced to back out of a first flyer when he made a mistake at Turn 1 and ran wide. TheRead More

Sebastian Vettel proved the value of the updates brought by Ferrari to this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix by claiming top spot in final practice at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The session was ended early, however, when Renault’s Kevin Magnussen crashed out with eight minutes remaining, resulting in red flags. Key to the updates Ferrari has added to its car in Canada is a new turbocharger and its effect were felt this morning when four-time champion ended the abbreviated session as the only man to dip under the 1:14s mark. VettelRead More

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of final practice in Bahrain ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen as Ferrari took the fight to Mercedes ahead of qualifying at the Sakhir Circuit. With just over 10 minutes left on the clock, the Mercedes drivers took to the track on the red-banded supersoft tyre for their qualifying runs. Nico Rosberg immediately jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:32.104, with Lewis Hamilton quickly slotting into P2 with a lap just five hundredths of a second adrift of the Australian Grand Prix winner. ItRead More