Vettel on top again before rain arrives

2015 Austrian Grand Prix third practice

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For the second practice session in a row Sebastian Vettel led the times by a tiny margin.

The Ferrari driver was leading Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes by just 17 thousandths of a second when heavy rain arrived at the Red Bull Ring, preventing any further improvements.

Most drivers had made an early switch to super-soft tyres to do their qualifying performance runs when the session was red-flagged after Fernando Alonso came to a stop on the start/finish straight. A clutch of cars queued up to rejoin the track as soon as the session restarted, but by then the rain had arrived, leaving them to tiptoe around the track on their slick tyres.

Sergio Perez was one of few drivers to complete a lap on the super-softs before the session was stopped and moved up to fourth place behind Kimi Raikkonen.

Several drivers took to the track on wet weather rubber when the rain eased at the end of the session. Raikkonen and Carlos Sainz Jnr were among those to skid off before the chequered flag fell, but none of the drivers suffered any damage to their cars.

Lotus were among those not to send their drivers out in wet conditions. However Romain Grosjean’s session has already been disrupted by clutch problems.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
15Sebastian VettelFerrari1’09.99416
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’10.0110.01716
37Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’10.1770.18312
411Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’10.2210.22714
56Nico RosbergMercedes1’10.3320.33823
619Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’10.4080.41418
777Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’10.4170.42314
833Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’10.4360.44223
913Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’10.5760.58212
108Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’10.8630.8698
1127Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’11.0091.01514
129Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’11.0581.06422
1355Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’11.1391.14518
1426Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’11.1391.14514
1514Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’11.1681.17413
163Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’11.8191.82510
1712Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’11.9061.9129
1822Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’12.6162.62216
1928Will StevensManor-Ferrari1’13.3283.33414
2098Roberto MerhiManor-Ferrari1’13.9603.9668

Third practice visual gaps

Sebastian Vettel – 1’09.994

+0.017 Lewis Hamilton – 1’10.011

+0.183 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’10.177

+0.227 Sergio Perez – 1’10.221

+0.338 Nico Rosberg – 1’10.332

+0.414 Felipe Massa – 1’10.408

+0.423 Valtteri Bottas – 1’10.417

+0.442 Max Verstappen – 1’10.436

+0.582 Pastor Maldonado – 1’10.576

+0.869 Romain Grosjean – 1’10.863

+1.015 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’11.009

+1.064 Marcus Ericsson – 1’11.058

+1.145 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’11.139

+1.145 Daniil Kvyat – 1’11.139

+1.174 Fernando Alonso – 1’11.168

+1.825 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’11.819

+1.912 Felipe Nasr – 1’11.906

+2.622 Jenson Button – 1’12.616

+3.334 Will Stevens – 1’13.328

+3.966 Roberto Merhi – 1’13.960

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Sebastian VettelFerrari1’15.6841’09.6001’09.994+0.39444
2Nico RosbergMercedes1’10.4011’09.6111’10.332+0.72173
3Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’11.0281’09.8601’10.177+0.31753
4Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’12.0041’09.9141’10.576+0.66256
5Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’10.7091’10.1371’10.011-0.12665
6Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’12.0311’10.1601’11.009+0.84963
7Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’11.9051’10.5851’10.221-0.36460
8Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’10.2671’10.863+0.59646
9Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’11.8251’10.3561’10.436+0.0871
10Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’11.8901’11.0111’10.408-0.60360
11Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’11.4521’10.7461’10.417-0.32948
12Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’11.6331’10.4951’11.906+1.41148
13Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’11.9481’10.6311’11.139+0.50868
14Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’11.6421’10.6861’11.139+0.45362
15Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’12.1591’10.7441’11.058+0.31462
16Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’13.2721’11.5171’11.168-0.34930
17Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’11.7241’11.6761’11.819+0.14348
18Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’12.9201’11.9191’12.616+0.69733
19Jolyon PalmerLotus-Mercedes1’12.0500
20Will StevensManor-Ferrari1’13.9371’12.5221’13.328+0.80648
21Roberto MerhiManor-Ferrari1’15.4591’13.0941’13.960+0.86642

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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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8 comments on “Vettel on top again before rain arrives”

  1. Rosberg again with the most laps.

    1. like him or not, he does put in alot of effort

  2. why do they do practise starts after the practise session ends? they end up getting to do a whole extra lap of practise. i know its not safe during practise having cars practising starts on the main straight, but they already practise coming out of the pit. just seems strange to watch a practise session end, and then they are still practising for 5 minutes.

    1. Neil (@neilosjames)
      20th June 2015, 18:35

      @kpcart FIA decided they should be done on the grid after sessions. None are allowed at the pit exit (I’d assume because it’s narrow).

  3. Just me or is this track one that suits Verstappen’s strengths? He’s been best of the bulls / renaults so far

    1. First track this year he’s raced on before

  4. LOL Other than McLaren Vettel has the least amount of laps.

  5. I aim for a good red bull or toro rosso times if it rains :D

Comments are closed.