Rosberg quickest once again in FP3 at Brazil

Rosberg quickest once again in FP3 at Brazil

This afternoon we saw Nico Rosberg setting the pace in FP3 in Brazil ahead of his team mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa who was third fastest.

With the rain overnight washing away the rubber laid down on the Interlagos track, we saw a lot of action on track during the session. During FP3, we saw Esteban Guiterrez out of the exit of the Juncao corner nearly lose the rear of his Sauber due to the water that hasn't cleared from last night but he was able to continue on during the session.

We did also see Jean-Eric Vergne and Lewis Hamilton having severe lock ups (Hamilton locked up twice during the session) going into Turn1 and nearly losing the rear end of their cars but both were able to continue during the session.

But it was Rosberg who continued to set the pace in FP3 and was ahead of Hamilton with a lap time of 1.10.446. Hamilton finished the session in second place 0.114 seconds behind Rosberg but ahead of Massa who was 0.4 seconds behind the two Mercedes drivers.

Valtteri Bottas finished the session in fourth place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in fifth place ahead of a much improved Jenson Button in sixth place and Kimi Raikkonen in seventh place. Fernando Alonso ended the session in eighth place ahead of Kevin Magnussen in ninth place and Daniil Kvyat who rounds off the top ten finishers of the session and is having a strong weekend so far.

Sebastian Vettel ended the session in eleventh place ahead of the Pastor Maldonado in twelfth place and Adrian Sutil in thirteenth place. As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Romain Grosjean finished the session in fourteenth place ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne in fifteenth place, Esteban Guiterrez in sixteenth place and the Force India drivers of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez who ended the session in seventeenth and eighteenth places and appear to be struggling to extract pace from their car so far this weekend.

The classification of FP3 at the Brazilian Grand Prix is as follows below:-

Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1.10.446
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 0.114s
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 0.429s
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 0.608s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 0.742s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 0.764s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 0.870s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 0.953s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1.053s
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1.388s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1.521s
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1.623s
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1.738s
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1.789s
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1.789s
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1.840s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.878s
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 2.496s

Sarah Jones