Russia – Free Practice 3: Ferrari keeps up its momentum and puts Mercedes in doubt

After a Friday dominated by Ferrari, speculation was rife about the real level of competitiveness of the Maranello cars: were they as fuel-heavy as their Mercedes competitors? Were they trying to put pressure on their opponents before the qualifying session?

The free practice session opens with a rather cool air temperature of 18° C but a high ground temperature of 33° C on the track of the former Olympic site.

The Frenchman Esteban Ocon of Force India is the first driver to set a benchmark time of 1:38.373 on super soft tires. Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull quickly posts a time on purple side-wall ultra-soft tires at 1:37.547, before being joined by Verstappen at 1:37.495. However, the Ferraris make a statement by taking the top two spots 15 minutes after the green light, with Kimi Räikkönen leading Sebastian Vettel. After the initial benchmark times set by the Ferrari drivers, Mercedes hits the track and a time-trial battle ensues between the two best teams of the early 2017 season. A battle that sees the session’s best time fall lap after lap as the track gets rubbered in. In the end, for this first stint, Lewis Hamilton tops the time sheets with 1:34.828, a tenth of a second ahead of Vettel who leads the second Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and his teammate Räikkönen: the four drivers are within less than a second while the Red Bull drivers are relegated to over a second and two-tenths in 5th and 6th position.

25 minutes before the end of the session, Max Verstappen disrupts the top hierarchy by beating Räikkönen’s lap time, six-tenths of a second behind Hamilton’s benchmark. A few minutes later, Bottas drives the point home for his team by clocking a lap in 1:34.681, to which Hamilton cannot respond as he finishes his lap sliding, struggling with an untamable rear end in the final corners. The contrast then becomes striking with Ferraris in perfect control from start to finish of their respective timed laps, taking the top two positions from the Silver Arrows, relegating Bottas and Hamilton to three and five-tenths of a second respectively, with a punishing 1:34.001 for the four-time German world champion.

A striking image to illustrate the relative disarray of the Mercedes team is the attitude of the Austrian team director Toto Wolff as his cars returned to their garages.

Long week-end en perspective pour Toto Wolff et les flèches d’argent ? #RussianGP 😬
Début de réponse à 13H45 sur C+DECALE pour les qualifs ⏰ pic.twitter.com/WxedPYo0eL

— La F1® sur CANAL (@LaF1SurCanal) 29 avril 2017

In the last ten minutes of this third free practice session, the focus was no longer on fighting for the best time, as the standings were only marginally changing. Six minutes before the end, Ricciardo’s session was disrupted by an alert, forcing him to shift into neutral in the middle of a flying lap, affected by a momentary failure of his Renault power unit. The Australian finished his session in 8th position. Regarding Romain Grosjean in the Haas, he expressed his frustration with the behavior of his car and urged his team to check piece by piece to fix a problem that the Frenchman seemed at a loss to describe.

It is interesting to note that Ferrari seems capable of securing the pole position this afternoon in Sochi, thus putting an end to the incredible series of 19 consecutive poles achieved by various Mercedes drivers.

Note that Renault driver Jolyon Palmer, who was unable to take part in the practice session due to mechanical issues, is not guaranteed to participate in this afternoon’s qualifying session.

PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION (END OF FP3): Game on… #RussianGP 🇷🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/9vAitUThZv

— Formula 1 (@F1) 29 avril 2017