Russian GP 2015

OCTOBER 10, 2015

Practice 3 Report - Marred

Nico Rosberg, Russian GP 2015
© Active Pictures

 

Nico Rosberg went quickest on a dry Saturday in Sochi in a Free Practice 3 that was marred by Carlos Sainz having a big accident that ended the session with 25 minutes remaining.

The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Red Bull Renault - Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat. Williams Mercedes - Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. Ferrari - Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. McLaren Honda - Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. Force India Mercedes - Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez. Toro Rosso Renault - Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. Lotus Mercedes - Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. Marussia Ferrari - Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi. Sauber - Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.

A greasy track in FP1 because a truck had dumped diesel fuel on the track, and a wet track because of rain in FP2, meant that the drivers did not learn much on Friday. So all their work had to be compressed into the one-hour FP3.

"It will be an action packed P3 so I'm looking forward to it," Button said.

"Today the weather conditions were not very nice, we could not get much running and we learned pretty much nothing," Kimi Raikkonen said of Friday. "It's one of those days you do absolutely nothing, but that's how it goes. It was not ideal today but it was the same for everybody."

The drivers lined up at pit exit and when the lights turned green it was Kvyat who led them out on the dry track.

Bottas set the first time: 1:42.829. He improved to a 1:40.884.

3 minutes into the session, all the drivers had been out except the Ferrari duo.

12 minutes into the session, the order was Bottas, Maldonado, Hamilton, Grosjean, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Sainz, Perez, Hulkenberg and Kvyat.

15 minutes into the session, only Button was in the pits. The drivers were using both the soft and super soft Pirellis.

17 minutes into the session, Verstappen spun at Turn 18.

24 minutes into the session, several drivers headed out on the super softs.

30 minutes into the session, Rosberg posted a 1:38.941. The top 10 was now: Rosberg, Bottas, Massa, Button, Nasr, Raikkonen, Sainz, Vettel, Grosjean and Hamilton.

With 25 minutes remaining in the session, Sainz had a big accident at Turn 13 and the session was red flagged.

"Is he okay?" Verstappen asked. "We don't know - we lost power to the car," said his Toro Rosso engineer.

The session was not restarted. The top 10 were: Rosberg, Bottas, Hamilton, Perez, Massa, Hulkenberg, Button, Maldonado, Alonso and Nasr.