Massa Quickest In Washed Out Monza Free Practice 3

Felipe Massa was one of only seven drivers to set a lap-time in Free Practice 3 at Monza, going quickest and leading a Williams one-two in the times as heavy rain left the Monza track surface soaking wet.

The final practice session had been indefinitely delayed at the scheduled start time due to torrential rain soaking the circuit. After several track inspections by Bernd Maylander and race director Charlie Whiting in the safety car, the conditions were judged to have cleared up adequately to begin the session 44 minutes behind schedule.

All twenty drivers made exploratory runs on full wets, but only seven stayed out to attempt a representative laptime. Conditions were still treacherous on the pit straight, with both Toro Rossos of Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat skating straight on at the first chicane during timed laps.

Despite being the last cars to brave heading out on track, the Williams pair of Massa and Lance Stroll set the fastest times, with the Brazilian close to a second quicker than Nico Hulkenberg in third.

The last two drivers on track were Kimi Raikkonen and Pascal Wehrlein, and while the former elected to pit instead of crossing the line to set a laptime, the latter suffered an ERS problem aboard his Sauber as the chequered flag dropped to end the shortened session.