Rosberg takes the initiative in final practice

2014 Spanish Grand Prix third practice

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Nico Rosberg responded to his team mate’s Friday pace by heading the final practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya.

But the Mercedes driver’s best time of 1’25.887 was three-tenths of a second off Lewis Hamilton’s best time from yesterday. Hamilton aborted his quickest lap on the medium tyres after making a small mistake in the final sector.

The Mercedes pair were more than a second quicker than any other car on the track. Home favourite Fernando Alonso was third for Ferrari.

Felipe Massa didn’t emerge from his garage until the second half of the session. But when he did the potential of the Williams became apparent – he was just a few hundredths of a second slower than Alonso.

Lotus received some encouragement as Romain Grosjean, who endured several problems yesterday, posted the fifth-fastest time. He was just over a tenth of a second faster than Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren.

Red Bull dropped back from the ‘best-of-the-rest’ positions they occupied on Friday, Daniel Ricciardo only seventh fastest. Team mate Sebastian Vettel finally got some significant running done in his RB10 following the repair to his wiring loom, but ran wide during an early lap on the medium tyres.

For the second practice session in a row Max Chilton’s participation came to an early end in a gravel trap. He locked up at turn five and came to a stop. That brought out the yellow flags which delayed the start of the final flying laps on the softer tyres.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
16Nico RosbergMercedes1’25.88716
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’26.7560.8699
314Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’27.1881.30115
419Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’27.2231.33610
58Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’27.6821.79518
620Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’27.8061.91916
73Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’27.8081.92112
822Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’28.0062.11911
913Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’28.0762.18919
101Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’28.0852.19820
1177Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’28.1012.21412
1225Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’28.2422.35516
1326Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’28.2982.41116
147Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’28.4192.53216
1511Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’28.5712.68413
1627Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’28.6882.80113
1799Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’28.7152.82816
1821Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’28.8652.97818
194Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’30.1694.28215
2017Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’30.6704.78312
2110Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’30.7124.82518
229Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’31.5595.67219

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’27.0231’25.5241’26.756+1.23259
2Nico RosbergMercedes1’28.1681’25.9731’25.887-0.08661
3Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’27.9731’26.5091’27.808+1.29971
4Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’28.1281’27.1211’27.188+0.06771
5Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’28.7911’27.8241’27.223-0.60154
6Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’28.3371’27.2961’28.419+1.12368
7Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’29.9441’29.4931’27.682-1.81165
8Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’28.4231’27.7881’27.806+0.01880
9Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’27.8911’27.8111’28.006+0.19566
10Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’28.7441’27.8661’28.076+0.2195
11Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’28.7921’28.0491’28.298+0.24975
12Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’28.8281’28.0741’28.688+0.61461
13Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’30.9421’28.085-2.85724
14Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’28.6981’28.101-0.59745
15Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’28.8591’28.2461’28.242-0.00470
16Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’29.6881’28.2841’28.715+0.43165
17Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’28.7791’29.1291’28.571-0.20865
18Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’29.1051’28.865-0.2442
19Felipe NasrWilliams-Mercedes1’29.27215
20Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’29.8201’29.9911’30.670+0.8560
21Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’30.7481’31.1481’30.169-0.57962
22Giedo van der GardeSauber-Ferrari1’30.44022
23Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’30.9971’31.3381’30.712-0.28578
24Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’31.4211’31.5861’31.559+0.13880

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “Rosberg takes the initiative in final practice”

  1. I was watching this FP3 and almost fell asleep. And I think I’ll repeat that during today’s qualifying and tomorrow’s race. It’s one of the most boring F1 season I’ve ever seen. I have been watching F1 since 1999 and Schumacher era wasn’t as boring. And it’s not all down to one team dominating. I’m reviving new formula discussion. These new cars are extremely fast down the straights, but watching them they look so slow. Of course, they are slower in corners. But it’s also down to engine. It lacks drama, they made an illusion that there’s nothing faster on earth than that screaming Ferrari ir Mclaren. V10s were an entertainment alone, even though one driver was dominating. And drivers justling those cars through corners is not as much fun as I expected.

    1. Get over it buddy

      1. I’m trying, but it’s really hard.

        1. Exactly what level of excitement were you expecting from a practice session? Anyway…to each their own. If it is not for you so be it. But do remember that it is early days in a brand new chapter so things should tighten up in the field, and some races are always better than others for all kinds of reasons. Yeah there’s always room for improvement, and you don’t need to revive the discussion…the F1 community is discussing many aspects of their entity constantly these days.

          Personally I’ve already been thrilled moreso than I have in a long time with that battle in Bahrain and as it was happening I was thinking of the Villeneuve/Arnoux battle from about 35 years ago, which just shows the potential of the saga of F1 in spite of it’s imperfections. Certain specific snapshots in time amongst the more mundane times, can stand out for decades.

    2. Forget about these political correct toys, watch Moto GP and the riders skill and bravery and listen to the Honda.

      1. And World Superbikes. And World Supersport. Buy a bike and start riding while you’re at it. 3 best decisions i ever made :p

    3. That may also be due to the nature of this track. I expect the monaco-qualifying-onboards to be the most entertaining since years, but this week´s race and quali in Barcelona will probably be quite boring for something F1-related, I agree. Those long corners could only be interesting with rain, which is unlikely to happen.

    4. I’m sorry, but do you really want even less overtaking, because everyone is relying on their fuel strategy to go by others? To have packs of cars at every race going in the order Ferrari (2seconds) McLaren-Williams (3 seconds) Renault-BAR (2 seconds) Jaguar-Toyota-Sauber (5 seconds) Jordan-Minardi? Because that was so exciting, knowing pretty much where everyone was going to finish. Nowadays, teams like Force India, Sauber and even McLaren and Ferrari can be everywhere along the pack at any given moment in the season.

      Just because there is no battle for the lead, doesn’t mean the races are worse than 2005-2009. And if you’re that concerned about the engine, go watch V8 Supercars, or better yet, go on eBay and find an old V10 and watch that as ‘entertainment alone’.

      The reason why everyone thinks they’re slow is cornering speed and the lack of RPM. I still haven’t gotten used to the low RPMs either, but my ears aren’t my only functioning sense.

    5. @osvaldas31 If you really weren’t interested, you wouldn’t be watching quali or the race in the first place. It just looks like you’re whining for whining’s sake.

    6. Can you really tell the cars are a couple seconds slower? I was watching through the first few races of the ’89 season this week and I honestly couldn’t tell that they were much slower. The twitchiness they had under braking seemed to make up for the lack of speed which I couldn’t see anyway. Is this just more to whine about or can people really see a couple seconds on the track?

    7. I don’t want to look like whining, just wanted to share my opinion. Just very hard to get used to new formula. It was far easier in 2009, when last big regulation changes came. I’ve got used to car looks quite quickly every season, but still I don’t like current looks of thin cars and quirky thin rear wings.

  2. Is Force India suddenly looking uncompetitive? Have they lost out already in the upgrade race,,, or just my thoughts.

  3. Copy Hamilton’s set-up and go fastest….seems legit.PROFESSOR Nico

    1. Yup…two drivers pushing each other…exactly how it should work…opposite being one driver is favoured and the one who is not never gets to see the favoured one’s data…and then what would there be left…no race for the Championship whatsoever. Good thing LH gets to copy NR’s setups too.

  4. 1.3 seconds… this is pretty astonishing stuff!

  5. The track is only going to get less grippy and apparently it’s something that only Mercedes seem to cope with, also the track this year is rear limited especially on traction which is helping the Mercedes runners as they seem to get better traction, all things considered it’s Bahrain easy domination for Mercedes, certainly more than an engine.

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