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.
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 |
2015 Spanish Grand Prix
- Solid Spain win earns Rosberg Driver of the Weekend
- Catalunya serves up another Spanish GP to forget
- 2015 Spanish Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Top ten pictures from the 2015 Spanish Grand Prix
- 2015 Spanish GP Predictions Championship results
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.
Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
9th May 2015, 11:20
If Ferraris can get within 0,5 sec in quali on such aerodynamic circuit, then I’ll be pretty happy.
Key (@key75)
9th May 2015, 11:27
+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!
Key (@key75)
9th May 2015, 11:28
But there’s another problem right now in Vettel car, so -.-
bola
9th May 2015, 20:24
So?
Sonics (@sonicslv)
9th May 2015, 11:23
McLaren pace looks better than Force India and Lotus all weekend. Hoping one of them could genuinely fighting to get into Q3 later.
iFelix (@ifelix)
9th May 2015, 11:36
Vintage Kimi :))
Alexander (@)
9th May 2015, 11:48
Had a good laugh at this :D
uan (@uan)
9th May 2015, 12:34
@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.