Rosberg ahead in FP3 as Hamilton takes it easy

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunyaes

Nico Rosberg topped the timesheet during the third and final practice session in preparation for qualifying and the Spanish Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton ended in second but did not attempt to take the top spot, seemingly happy with the car as it was.

Few drivers went off the track during the session as well. Jean-Eric Vergne and Kamui Kobayashi were wide through turn 4 but both managed to recover without issues.

The early part of the session though was dominated with drivers complaining about the lack of rear grip on the hard Pirelli tyres. It was obvious on track that many had difficulties controlling their cars with powerslides through turns 2, 3 and 8 from lots of different racers. Nico Hulkenberg was also heard complaining of severe overheating of the rear tyres halfway into the session, at a point where track temperatures were around 28°C.

Sutil's problems meanwhile were worse than that as the German complained about a general lack of instability on his Sauber, saying "it's a completely different car to yesterday".

11 minutes from the end, Max Chilton ended his running early on by ending up in the gravel trap at turn 5. The Briton was seen in a massive power slide a few laps earlier to turn 8 but this time was unable to correct the oversteer in time to keep his car on track.

Lewis Hamilton on the other hand also had enough of FP3, setting the second fastest time but seemingly very pleased with his car. Seeing no need to improve any further during this session bodes well for him. This left Nico Rosberg on top of the timesheet, 1.3s ahead of Fernando Alonso who is third fastest and the first of the rest.

At the very end of the session, Lotus showed further signs of improvement whereas Sebastian Vettel didn't bother showing all the pace that might be in his Red Bull RB10.

Results

Pos.No.DriverTeamTimeGapLaps
16Nico RosbergMercedes1:25.887-16
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:26.7560.8699
314Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:27.1881.30115
419Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1:27.2231.33610
58Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1:27.6821.79518
620Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1:27.8061.91916
73Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing-Renault1:27.8081.92112
822Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:28.0062.11911
913Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1:28.0762.18919
101Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault1:28.0852.19820
1177Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1:28.1012.21412
1225Jean-Eric VergneStr-Renault1:28.2422.35516
1326Daniil KvyatStr-Renault1:28.2982.41116
147Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:28.4192.53216
1511Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1:28.5712.68413
1627Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1:28.6682.78113
1799Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1:28.7152.82816
1821Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1:28.8652.97818
194Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1:30.1694.28215
2017Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1:30.6704.78312
2110Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1:30.7124.82518
229Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1:31.5595.67219