Ferrari showing strong ahead of qualifying
- Sep 19, 2015
- 2 min read
Sebastian Vettel set the fastest lap in FP3 ahead of team mate Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari were showing the strongest pace and the most settled car throughout the session, with Vettel also being the fastest man at the end of the soft tyre runs before the qualifying simulations in the final quarter of the session.
Red Bull continued to show they are a force to be reckoned with this weekend with Daniil Kvyat 3rd, just three hundredths of a second behind Raikkonen. Daniel Ricciardo was 4th, although Ricciardo was not happy with his qualifying run.
Mercedes still look uncomfortable. Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying sim lap was 1.1 seconds off the pace, with Nico Rosberg a further four tenths back. Rosberg was only a hundredth of a second up on Fernando Alonso in 7th, which is something we didn’t expect to see at any point this season!
Carlos Sainz was ahead of team mate Max Verstappen in 8th, but neither Toro Rosso looked entirely settled on the soft tyre. They still look to be Q3 contenders alongside Force India, whose supersoft runs did not match the pace of their earlier lap times.
Final classification
Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari – 1:45.682
Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari – 1:46.132
Daniil Kvyat – Red Bull – 1:46.167
Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull – 1:46.359
Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – 1:46.802
Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – 1:47.223
Fernando Alonso – McLaren – 1:47.237
Carlos Sainz – Toro Rosso – 1:47.301
Max Verstappen – Toro Rosso – 1:47.464
Marcus Ericsson – Sauber – 1:47.568
Valtteri Bottas – Williams – 1:47.587
Nico Hulkenberg – Force India – 1:47.640
Jenson Button – McLaren – 1:47.715
Felipe Massa – Williams – 1:47.733
Pastor Maldonado – Lotus – 1:47.817
Sergio Perez – Force India – 1:48.002
Romain Grosjean – Lotus – 1:48.116
Felipe Nasr – Sauber – 1:48.932
Alexander Rossi – Manor – 1:52.588
Will Stevens – Manor – 1:55.293
FP3 starts in the daylight and ends with the sun setting. This means it is somewhat more representative than FP1 but a question mark must still be raised over the relevance of the lap times. The temperatures will drop significantly and the track will improve in grip before qualifying, which could see a change in the order of the pack.
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