Great Britain – Free Practice 3: Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull dance in the rain

Unlike yesterday, the weather is not ideal for the start of this third practice session: it rained throughout the night. Although it has stopped, the track remains largely wet. During the GP3 qualifiers, many drivers made mistakes.

The drivers are not daunted by these conditions and quickly set off for a first installation lap on wet or intermediate tires. As the track dries very quickly, the drivers soon decide to switch to intermediates. However, ten minutes into the session, still no recorded times. Daniel Ricciardo no longer has his helmet on, and Fernando Alonso is no longer in his car, signs that clearly indicate they do not plan to go back out immediately.

The first to mark their names on the timesheet are the two Caterham drivers, with Marcus Ericsson at 1:57.091 significantly ahead of Kamui Kobayashi. The Swede’s time doesn’t last long as Daniil Kvyat improves immediately afterward, despite a major slide in the last corner. The Russian is then bested by his own teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne. Max Chilton’s session seems already over as his mechanics are dismantling his gearbox. He will thus lose five places on the grid.

The rain is beginning to show its face again in certain areas of the track, which does not encourage the drivers to continue lapping. Thus, Nico Rosberg prefers not to take any risks and gets out of his car, even though he had set two very fast sectors. Thus, at the halfway point of the session, we only have 13 recorded times: Ricciardo, Magnussen, Button, Grosjean, Maldonado, Räikkönen, Vergne, Kvyat, Hülkenberg, Pérez, Ericsson, Bianchi, and Kobayashi.

Romain Grosjean also spun in the last corner but got much closer to the wall than Daniil Kvyat. However, it seems that it disrupted his car and he can only return to the pits slowly.

The rain continues to intensify, and now it’s Jules Bianchi’s turn to get caught out. The Frenchman from Marussia wasn’t able to turn and went straight off at Stowe. He hit the tire barrier without causing much damage to his car. However, he remains stuck in the gravel trap. Meanwhile, Adrian Sutil also has a big off-track excursion but is able to bring his car back onto the track.

With fifteen minutes to go, the two Mercedes still haven’t set a time, nor have Chilton, Bottas, Massa, and Alonso. For once, it’s a Red Bull one-two, with Sebastian Vettel at 1:52.522, slightly ahead of Daniel Ricciardo at 1:52.631.

In the last part of the session, the rain is once again very present, making the track very tricky, even with wet tires. Many drivers make mistakes, without serious consequences but no times are improved. The two Mercedes, Fernando Alonso, and Max Chilton were the only ones not to set a timed lap.