Posted on 20th June 2015
This morning in a session that was brought to an early close by rain in Austria, Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets in FP3 ahead of Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen.
During the session, we saw Pastor Maldonado locking up on the circuit, running wide but was able to continue on with the session. On the track, Sergio Perez picked up a puncture from the kerbs on Turn 6 and had to pit in order to get new tyres fitted to his Force India.
We also saw Romain Grosjean going really slowly around the track with a suspected gearbox failure and being stuck in seventh gear after losing drive. He managed to get the gearbox working and he made it back to the pits and the Lotus team will be investigating this issue quickly before the start of qualifying.
With 30 minutes of the session left, Fernando Alonso stopped on the pit straight in his McLaren-Honda with suspected mechanical failure. This then brought out the red flag while the marshals needed to recover the car from the position and hand it back to the McLaren team.
With a 40% chance of rain going into this session, the rain hit the Spielberg circuit in the last 25 minutes of the session and a hand full of drivers went out to see what the conditions were like. We saw Nico Rosberg and also Kimi Raikkonen running wide off the circuit and both were able to get back onto the circuit.
Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez came out onto the track with 20 minutes of the session left on intermediates. Hulkenberg was extremely lucky not to hit the barrier after going off the circuit due to no grip and he was able to continue on during the session.
In the final ten minutes of the session, Vettel, Sainz Jr and Verstappen went out onto the track with intermediates and wet tyres. All three at some point in the session either went wide off the track (Sainz went off twice in one lap) and Sainz Jr had a spin at Turn 6 but was able to continue on in the session.
For the second time in the session, Kimi Raikkonen also went off the circuit at Turn 3 after locking up but he was able to continue on after finding an escape road to help him. He also went off at Turn 3 the following lap and was able to continue on.
But it was Sebastian Vettel who topped the timesheets with a laptime of 1.09.994 ahead of Lewis Hamilton who finished in second place 0.017 seconds behind him but was ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in third place who was 0.183 seconds behind his team mate.
Sergio Perez finished the session in fourth place ahead of Nico Rosberg in fifth place, Felipe Massa in sixth place and Valtteri Bottas in seventh place. Max Verstappen continued his good form from yesterday and was eighth ahead of Pastor Maldonado in ninth place and Romain Grosjean who rounded off the top ten finishers.
Nico Hulkenberg ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Marcus Ericsson in twelfth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in thirteenth place, Daniil Kvyat in fourteenth place and Fernando Alonso in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Daniel Ricciardo finished the session in sixteenth place ahead of Felipe Nasr in seventeenth place, Jenson Button in eighteenth place and ahead of two Manor F1 drivers of Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens who finished the session in nineteenth and twentieth places.
The classification of FP3 for the Austrian GP is as follows:-
1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1.09.994
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.017s
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 0.183s
4. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 0.227s
5. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.338s
6. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 0.414s
7. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 0.423s
8. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 0.442s
9. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 0.582s
10. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 0.869s
11. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.015s
12. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.064s
13. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.145s
14. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull-Renault, 1.145s
15. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.174s
16. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1.825s
17. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.912s
18. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 2.622s
19. Will Stevens, Manor, 3.334s
20. Roberto Merhi, Manor, 3.966s
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
