Formula 1

Hamilton tops FP3 as Vettel closes in Further

1 Mins read

Lewis Hamilton continues to top the time sheets, however Ferrari will be confident after they cut the advantage down to just two tenths ahead of Qualifying with Sebastian Vettel once again leading the charge.

Neither Mercedes AMG PETRONAS cars decided to show their hand straight off, with both leaving their quick times for the final 10 minutes of practice, a move imitated by many of the other teams.

Hamilton eventually set a best of 1:24.544 with Vettel in second only 0.264 behind, while the other Mercedes of Nico Rosberg could only manage third. But none of the top three could match their times from Friday, suggesting that there’s more to come from the top teams.

But concerns will emerge over how close Vettel can actually get, with his fastest lap being set on low fuel as to impress the Tifosi and Luca di Montezemolo.

It was another poor morning for Infiniti Red Bull Racing, with Daniel Ricciardo going into qualifying with a 25 place grid penalty. To make matters worse, he would stop on track with 15 minutes remaining, meaning he wasn’t able to set a competitive lap time. Team-mate Daniil Kvyat could only manage seventeenth.

The Williams Martini Racing team improved their times from Friday to go fourth and fifth with Valtteri Bottas leading the way, as both were fairly equally matched as Bottas got to within half a second of Hamilton’s best.

Lotus F1 Team decided not to send out Pastor Maldonado until the final 10 minutes of the session, however; despite the lack of running, the Venezuelan managed to leap quickly up to second before being pushed down to sixth as the others improved late on.

As for team-mate Romain Grosjean, he was not able to match the pace from FP2 and ended the session in tenth, with the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen managing to only finish in seventh.

Credit: Nick Smith / TheImageTeam.com
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