Spain – Free Practice 3: Ferrari regains the lead
Scuderia Ferrari dominated the final free practice session of the weekend in Barcelona, with Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel ahead of Mercedes, who were dominant on the previous day. Red Bull remain not far behind the leading quartet, even if they can't set their sights as high as their two main rivals for this afternoon's qualifying session.
Friday was a happy day for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, who dominated the discussions in Barcelona against their main rivals of the 2017 season, the Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel. Behind them, there was a welcome improvement for the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, who climbed to 5th and 6th places, not far from the red cars. The performances of the Renaults of Nico Hülkenberg and Jolyon Palmer suggest a good Grand Prix for the French team.
Saturday did not start well for Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, whose car remained immobilized in the German team’s garage. The mechanics, after breaking the curfew imposed on teams during the year with only two exceptions throughout the season, had a lot of work to do to enable the Finnish driver to participate in this practice session. Mercedes reported an electrical issue with the Finn’s power unit, necessitating the installation of the engine used since the beginning of the season in the car.
At the green light, it’s Romain Grosjean’s Haas that is the first car to return to the Barcelona track, ahead of a wide array of drivers determined to make the most of this final hour of testing before this afternoon’s qualifications. Fernando Alonso, after a disastrous Friday for the Spaniard, is the first to record a timed lap on hard tires with orange sidewalls.
After a quarter of an hour, only the Force India and McLaren-Honda cars are on track to set timed laps, with an advantage for the Frenchman Esteban Ocon with a 1:24.784 on white-walled medium tires, until the arrival of the Ferraris, which seize the top two positions on the timing sheet, Räikkönen ahead of Vettel with a time of 1:24.409, almost a full second ahead of his German teammate.
Lewis Hamilton then interjects himself between the two Ferraris, 0.37 seconds behind Räikkönen’s best time.
Lance Stroll in the Williams is the first driver on the grid to set a time on soft yellow-walled tires, one and a half seconds off Räikkönen’s benchmark, which places him 5th in the hierarchy.
After half an hour of trials, the top 10 rankings show some shakeup, with a provisional 3rd fastest time for Verstappen’s Red Bull in front of Vettel, Sainz solidly in 5th, followed by Ricciardo, Stroll, Grosjean, Alonso, and Kvyat.
Räikkönen sets off with 23 minutes remaining on yellow tires, long after the Canadian Stroll, to drive the nail in front of his runner-up in this session, Hamilton, by creating a gap of over 2.5 seconds, before being joined by Vettel, less than 3/10ths of a second behind *Iceman*. A few minutes later, the Mercedes driver tries to respond on soft tires as well but is more than 3/10ths behind Räikkönen.
10 minutes from the end, Vettel’s Ferrari is immobilized in the pit lane, engine off, before the Italian team’s mechanics come to retrieve the car. At the same time, Bottas’s Mercedes finally returns to the track at the Circuit de Catalunya for a bit of running before the qualifying session, ultimately placing 4th behind Hamilton, 3/10ths behind him.
Less than 10 minutes left in the session ⌚️
BOT is finally in the car… and out on track #SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #FP3 pic.twitter.com/Wi9S9LUCuD
— Formula 1 (@F1) 13 mai 2017
The ranking of the top six remains unchanged compared to FP2, although it should be noted that Hülkenberg’s Renault in 7th place could disrupt the Red Bull team this afternoon in qualifying.
PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION: END OF FP3
Ferrari bounce back and leapfrog Mercedes in final practice 👀 ⬇️#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #FP3 pic.twitter.com/MKNv9ngeJx
— Formula 1 (@F1) 13 mai 2017
