Hamilton ahead as practice ends without Manor

2015 Australian Grand Prix third practice

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Lewis Hamilton led the final practice session for the Australian Grand Prix with almost a full second in hand over team mate Nico Rosberg.

However Rosberg, who led both of yesterday’s sessions, reported a gearshift problem with his car during his final run on the soft tyres. The pair were split by Sebastian Vettel, the Ferrari driver getting within seven-tenths of a second of Hamilton’s time.

Hamilton’s lap of 1’27.867 was more than a tenth of a second off Rosberg’s best from yesterday. But late in the session he demonstrated he had more pace in hand by improving his first and second sector times.

Valtteri Bottas was fourth-quickest for Williams, a second off Hamilton’s time, followed by team mate Felipe Massa. Behind Raikkonen’s Ferrari, Williams’ fellow Mercedes customers Lotus were next, Romain Grosjean ahead of Pastor Maldonado.

Carlos Sainz Jnr and Felipe Nasr completed the top ten, the pair and 11th-placed Max Verstappen all covered by less than a tenth of a second. The other Sauber of Marcus Ericsson was 12th despite a spin at the exit of the high-speed turn 12.

It was another difficult session for Red Bull whose cars placed only 15th and 18th – Daniil Kvyat the slowest of the drivers who set times. Daniel Ricciardo’s car stopped at the pit lane exit but was pushed back in by the marshals and was later able to rejoin. The pair were split by the struggling McLarens.

However Manor’s chances of qualifying for the first race of the season remain slim as neither Will Stevens nor Roberto Merhi was able to participate in the session, having also missed all of yesterday’s running.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’27.86711
25Sebastian VettelFerrari1’28.5630.69613
36Nico RosbergMercedes1’28.8210.95414
477Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’28.9121.04514
519Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’28.9881.12118
67Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’29.0171.15013
78Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’29.4811.61412
813Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’29.8641.99715
955Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’29.8692.00219
1012Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’29.9342.06724
1133Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’29.9522.08516
129Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’30.6132.74621
1327Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’30.7412.87414
1411Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’30.9933.12617
153Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’31.1853.31810
1620Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Honda1’31.3913.52414
1722Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’31.6663.79913
1826Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’32.8304.9636

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Nico RosbergMercedes1’29.5571’27.6971’28.821+1.12462
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’29.5861’27.7971’27.867+0.0755
3Sebastian VettelFerrari1’31.0291’28.4121’28.563+0.15159
4Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’31.3101’28.8421’29.017+0.17560
5Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’30.7481’29.2651’28.912-0.35366
6Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’31.1881’28.988-2.237
7Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes2’17.7821’30.2051’29.481-0.72454
8Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’31.4511’30.1041’29.864-0.2448
9Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’31.0141’30.0711’29.869-0.20292
10Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’30.7551’29.934-0.82135
11Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’31.0671’31.3951’29.952-1.11553
12Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’32.0731’30.0161’32.830+2.81451
13Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’32.2611’30.4731’30.741+0.26863
14Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’32.3031’30.613-1.6935
15Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’32.2471’30.9801’30.993+0.01371
16Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’31.5701’31.185-0.38519
17Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’34.5421’31.3871’31.666+0.27940
18Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Honda1’34.7851’33.2891’31.391-1.89825

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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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18 comments on “Hamilton ahead as practice ends without Manor”

  1. Very exciting qualifying potentially. Mercedes drivers pushing hard, unpredictable between Williams and Ferrari and what’s going on with Red Bull and McLaren?

  2. Lotus have been quiet yet surprisingly solid; same can be said about Sauber. RBR struggling enormously, even slower than their own sister team. Nonetheless, it should be an exciting qualy.

  3. Wait, what happened to Rosberg? Nowhere near Hamilton!

    1. Ah, gear snag.

    2. No idea, his time in FP2 is still fastest of the weekend. Either he’s lost all his speed overnight, or he is sandbagging.

      1. Don’t forget, Hamilton was on course to go even quicker before aborting his final. That way in qualy there isn’t a second between Ham and ROS. In race pace Lewis has a couple of tenths as is evidenced by last year’s result. Should be an interesting qualy but i still believe Williams and Ferrari are too close to call.

  4. Out of the top 5, only Bottas improved on his times. Massa not considered since he didn’t run in P2.

    Seems all of top3 teams have times on hand and have not revealed it yet.

    Vettel showing great speed like he did in his WDC years, Kimi will play the waiting game I suppose with his impressive race pace.

    Can’t wait for qualifying to start and kick off the season.

    1. Hamilton was about to but pitted. He was a few tenths up I believe.

    2. +1 Totally Agreed!

  5. Please educate me. Why would Manor spend all this money to move their crew and equipment half way across the world only to have, what looks like, two of the world’s most expensive paperweights in the garage? Shouldn’t they save that money to figure out the software back at base instead? And not do their basic work at a venue? This is a team that earned points last year, I thought they’d know better..

    1. It’s very difficult to run. They probably couldn’t afford to go through all the precautions before hand. What’s important is them entering every race this season. That’s key to survival.

    2. They had to make the trip to come to Malaysia anyway. If turning up in Aus makes them get the money, then it makes sense.

  6. Are you people in the UK getting the coverage with Mark Webber commentating ? We are here in Oz and what a difference it makes to have someone who really knows what is happening with the drivers and cars out on track, keen sense of humour to. It really shows up how long it has been since the other driver-commentators were involved.

    1. It’s good to see! Always a fan of him and things like saying Ricciardo is sitting a bit lower this year and explaining that, or taking us around the RB garage is good to see.

  7. Surprise! Redbull-Renault is as bad as Mclaren-Honda! Wow.

    1. Rumors are that Red Bull Racing purchased the IP of Renault engine to go their own way in 2016 !!!!
      C.Honer is not denying it in the interview.

      Leak: NBSSN Commentators !!!!!

  8. 1) McLaren Honda wanted to Pull a Red Bull Renault of 2014 in Australia and that looks remote.
    2) Red Bull Renault 2015 looks like a Red Bull Renault of 2007 with Coulthard and Webber in it….
    3) Mercedes 2015 looks like Mercedes 2014 !!!

    Things might change in the next 2 hours. But unfortunately that is how it looks like now……

  9. I really don’t understand why F1 needs to have this back-markers teams like Red Bull and Mclaren. They are seconds behind and they offer nothing to the competition. They just fight with each other really.

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