Rosberg leads Vettel as Hamilton spins

2015 Spanish Grand Prix third practice

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Nico Rosberg led the final practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya as team mate Lewis Hamilton was delayed by a mid-session spin.

The Mercedes pair waited until the middle of the session to begin their first runs and soon took over the top of the times, both setting quicker laps on hard compound tyres than Daniel Ricciardo was able to do on his early run on mediums in the Red Bull.

However Hamilton’s progress was interrupted when the car got away from him in turn three – the corner made infamous by Fernando Alonso’s crash during testing. The Mercedes understeered wide then snapped sideways on the outside of the corner and skidded to a halt. Hamilton was able to get going again but his tyres were ruined by the slide. Meanwhile Rosberg improved on the best time of the weekend up to that point, lapping in 1’26.777.

When the pair came out for their performance runs on the medium tyre a clean lap put Rosberg ahead by two-tenths of a second. And worryingly for Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel was able to get his Ferrari in between the pair of them.

Kimi Raikkonen might have been able to do the same in his Ferrari, but the team discovered a problem related to an incorrect setting on his car after he began his run. “Excellent. How can we be in wrong settings?” exclaimed a frustrated Raikkonen, who ended the session fifth behind the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

Ricciardo’s early run on mediums turned out to be good enough for sixth ahead of the second Williams of Felipe Massa. Both Toro Rosso drivers ended the session in the top ten, separated by the other Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat, who made a late start to proceedings after a further technical problem on his car.

Jenson Button was the quicker of the two McLarens in 11th, while Alonso set the 14th-best time after clouting a kerb at the chicane on his quickest run.

Pos. No. Driver Car Best lap Gap Laps
1 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’26.021 19
2 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’26.177 0.156 14
3 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’26.222 0.201 10
4 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1’26.682 0.661 19
5 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’26.944 0.923 14
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1’27.048 1.027 19
7 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1’27.109 1.088 19
8 33 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1’27.132 1.111 18
9 26 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1’27.313 1.292 7
10 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso-Renault 1’27.809 1.788 17
11 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1’27.938 1.917 17
12 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1’28.082 2.061 13
13 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1’28.096 2.075 14
14 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1’28.304 2.283 17
15 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1’28.578 2.557 17
16 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1’28.618 2.597 18
17 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1’28.788 2.767 20
18 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1’28.996 2.975 14
19 28 Will Stevens Manor-Ferrari 1’31.125 5.104 16
20 98 Roberto Merhi Manor-Ferrari 1’31.749 5.728 17

Combined practice times

Pos Driver Car FP1 FP2 FP3 Fri/Sat diff Total laps
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’26.828 1’27.616 1’26.021 -0.807 82
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’27.806 1’27.260 1’26.177 -1.083 72
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’26.898 1’26.852 1’26.222 -0.63 63
4 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1’28.525 1’26.682 -1.843 58
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’27.832 1’27.780 1’26.944 -0.836 66
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1’29.075 1’29.098 1’27.048 -2.027 32
7 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1’28.831 1’28.712 1’27.109 -1.603 76
8 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1’28.529 1’28.017 1’27.132 -0.885 73
9 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1’28.785 1’27.943 1’27.313 -0.63 39
10 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso-Renault 1’28.132 1’28.674 1’27.809 -0.323 75
11 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1’29.817 1’28.494 1’27.938 -0.556 70
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1’29.409 1’29.601 1’28.082 -1.327 71
13 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1’29.140 1’29.333 1’28.096 -1.044 65
14 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1’29.813 1’28.723 1’28.304 -0.419 67
15 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1’29.086 1’28.578 -0.508 31
16 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1’30.110 1’29.217 1’28.618 -0.599 59
17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1’29.361 1’28.788 -0.573 54
18 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1’30.096 1’29.707 1’28.996 -0.711 68
19 Raffaele Marciello Sauber-Ferrari 1’29.630 15
20 Jolyon Palmer Lotus-Mercedes 1’29.676 21
21 Susie Wolff Williams-Mercedes 1’29.708 22
22 Will Stevens Manor-Ferrari 1’32.471 1’31.929 1’31.125 -0.804 68
23 Roberto Merhi Manor-Ferrari 1’32.647 1’32.751 1’31.749 -0.898 60

Author information

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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9 comments on “Rosberg leads Vettel as Hamilton spins”

  1. iAltair (@)
    9th May 2015, 11:08

    Not sure what to expect but it seems like its the usual for 2015 with Mercs in front, then the Ferraris and followed by the Williams.

  2. If Ferraris can get within 0,5 sec in quali on such aerodynamic circuit, then I’ll be pretty happy.

    1. +1! That’s what I’m thinking too! Last year Merc were more than 1s faster than everybody in Barcelona. So let’s hope Ferrari is closer in the rest of the season!

      1. But there’s another problem right now in Vettel car, so -.-

  3. McLaren pace looks better than Force India and Lotus all weekend. Hoping one of them could genuinely fighting to get into Q3 later.

  4. “Excellent. How can we be in wrong settings?” exclaimed a frustrated Raikkonen

    Vintage Kimi :))

    1. Alexander (@)
      9th May 2015, 11:48

      Had a good laugh at this :D

  5. @KeithCollantine

    I have to say, the title of this post is incredibly misleading. It makes it sound as if Rosberg and Vettel are only ahead of Hamilton because he spun, not on merit.

    But according to the article (I didn’t see FP3), Ros and Vet are ahead of Ham on merit. The spin was on the hard compound and had nothing to do with who topped the time sheets.

    It’s no big deal if Hamilton wasn’t the fastest in FP3.

Comments are closed.