Rosberg comfortably ahead in final practice
German Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has kept his team in the lead by going more than a second faster than the competition during the final practice session of the Australian Grand Prix weekend.
The second fastest man this morning in Australia was Jenson Button, albeit nearly 1.4 seconds off the pace. Fernando Alonso placed third fastest for Ferrari while Lewis Hamilton, fastest in FP2 set the fourth best time. Daniel Ricciardo was 5th and fastest for the Renault powered cars.
Notably absent in this top 5 is Williams. Felipe Massa was ranked third until teams switched to the softer tyres. As he failed to improve on his time while others did, Massa ended up in 10th. Still, it could have been worse, as team mate Valtteri Bottas was unable to come out due to a gearbox issue, requiring a change and invoking a 5-place grid penalty for tomorrow's race.
Besides Bottas, Esteban Gutierrez didn't set a time after running into gearbox problems at the start of the session in his Sauber. Romain Grosjean was also in the wars, getting increasingly vexed by an ongoing misfire. With Maldonado stopping the other E22 right at the end, Lotus's woes continued.
Results
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:29.375 | - | 15 |
| 2 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:30.766 | 1.391 | 20 |
| 3 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:30.876 | 1.501 | 11 |
| 4 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:30.919 | 1.544 | 13 |
| 5 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:30.970 | 1.595 | 13 |
| 6 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:30.978 | 1.603 | 16 |
| 7 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:31.156 | 1.781 | 12 |
| 8 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:31.251 | 1.876 | 22 |
| 9 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1:31.665 | 2.290 | 17 |
| 10 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1:31.723 | 2.348 | 20 |
| 11 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Str-Renault | 1:31.925 | 2.550 | 17 |
| 12 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:32.255 | 2.880 | 14 |
| 13 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Str-Renault | 1:32.417 | 3.042 | 16 |
| 14 | 17 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 1:34.184 | 4.809 | 15 |
| 15 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:34.188 | 4.813 | 16 |
| 16 | 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 1:34.413 | 5.038 | 19 |
| 17 | 4 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 1:34.717 | 5.342 | 15 |
| 18 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 1:34.754 | 5.379 | 15 |
| 19 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 1:36.159 | 6.784 | 21 |
| 20 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | No time | - | 2 |
| 21 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | No time | - | 2 |
| 22 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | No time | - | 4 |
