Practice 3 Report - Streets lined with silver

By Dan Knutson

The Silver Arrows Mercedes cars continued their domination of the streets of Baku City in Free Practice 3 as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were once again comfortably quickest.

The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Ferrari - Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Williams Mercedes - Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull TAG Heuer - Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen . Force India Mercedes - Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez. Renault - Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer. Toro Rosso Ferrari - Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz. Sauber Ferrari - Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. McLaren Honda - Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. Manor Mercedes - Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto. Haas Ferrari - Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez.

All the drivers found the slippery 20-turn city track to be a challenging one indeed.

"The corners are very technical and very tricky," Ricciardo noted. "So there's not much time to rest once you get past Turn 1. It is quite busy. The track is really bumpy so you can't let go of the steering wheel and relax as I thought. It is definitely a challenging circuit, but that is cool.

"We don't have any circuit like this on the calendar with some of these corners and trajectories. We didn't get as much speed today but when we get it right tomorrow we will feel a lot better."

The ambient temperature at the start of the 60-minute session was 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Centigrade.)

The first drivers out for the final free practice were Haas teammates Gutierrez and Grosjean. Rosberg had a new power unit fitted in his Mercedes after his car came to a halt in FP2.

Massa set the early pace with a lap in 1:48.346. His teammate Bottas, meanwhile, hit a loose drain cover in pit lane and that caused some damage to the car. An orange cone was placed over the offending drain cover so that the drivers could avoid it.

Ricciardo, who had crashed the day before, now led the times with a 1:46.685 using the super soft Pirellis.

The Force Indias had looked competitive on Friday, and they were quick again on Saturday as Perez slotted into second place with a lap 0.260 of a second slower than Ricciardo's. But the Mercedes and Williams drivers had yet to do any fast laps.

Meanwhile, as also happened on Friday, the drivers were making liberal use of the escape roads at Turns 1 and 15.

Nineteen minutes into FP3 Rosberg topped the times with a 1:45.558 on the super softs. Hamilton, on the same tires, followed with a lap 0.117 of a second slower.

Rosberg's top speed on the main straight was a staggering 219 mph (353.5 kmh) as he lowered his time to a 1:45.435. Hamilton improved to a 1:45.543. They were both over a full second quicker than Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Button who were next in the order.

Massa had tapped the wall but his car was not damaged. Bottas, however, was still in the garage having his car repaired. He never made it back out onto the track.

Vettel grabbed third place with a 1:45.694 on the super softs, but all was not well at Ferrari. "I have some issue," Raikkonen radioed. "I have no power coming out of the corners."

With 20 minutes remaining, most drivers were in the pits preparing for their qualifying simulations on the super soft Pirellis. The order was: Rosberg, Hamilton, Vettel, Massa, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Button, Kvyat, Perez and Verstappen.

Ricciardo then jumped up to third with a time of 1:45.620. Then Verstappen moved up to fifth place only to be displaced by Hulkenberg.

Rosberg's fast lap yielded a time of 1:44.610 despite a slide at Turn 16. Next Hulkenberg moved into second place, albeit 0.930 of a second slower than Rosberg.

Hamilton started his flying lap with seven minutes left in the session only to get things wrong in Turn 4. On his next lap he went off at Turn 1. So far he had not been able to match his Friday form. Then, finally, Hamilton got it right and slammed in a lap at 1:44.352 to continue his domination of the weekend.

The session ended with Perez hitting the wall at Turn 15, the same place where Ricciardo crashed on Friday.

The top 10 were: Hamilton, Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Vettel, Perez, Verstappen, Button, Kvyat abd Raikkonen.