Flying Ferraris lead Red Bull and distant Mercedes

2015 Singapore Grand Prix third practice

Posted on

| Written by

Ferrari topped the times in the final practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix, leaving Mercedes over a second off the pace.

Mercedes were over a second off the pace in final practice
Sebastian Vettel produced a rapid lap on super-soft tyres at the end of the session which was over four tenths of a second faster than anyone else could manage. He also led the way earlier in the session when the drivers were running on the harder soft compound rubber.

Behind the two Ferraris Daniil Kvyat was just three-hundredths of a second off Kimi Raikkonen’s time, followed by Daniel Ricciardo.

That left the two Mercedes down in fifth and sixth positions, though both appeared to have had parts of the final runs disrupted by traffic. Hamilton was one of several drivers to explore the run-off area at turn seven during the session.

McLaren were next, Fernando Alonso scaling the heights of seventh place in his MP4-30, followed by the two Toro Rosso drivers. Marcus Ericsson completed the top ten in the updated Sauber.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
15Sebastian VettelFerrari1’45.68212
27Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’46.1320.45012
326Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’46.1670.48519
43Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’46.3590.67714
544Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’46.8021.12015
66Nico RosbergMercedes1’47.2231.54116
714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’47.2371.55514
855Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’47.3011.61918
933Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’47.4641.78217
109Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’47.5681.88620
1177Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’47.5871.90520
1227Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’47.6401.95816
1322Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’47.7152.03314
1419Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’47.7332.05121
1513Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’47.8172.13516
1611Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’48.0022.32015
178Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’48.1162.43415
1812Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’48.9323.25020
1953Alexander RossiManor-Ferrari1’52.5886.90626
2028Will StevensManor-Ferrari1’55.2939.61122

Third practice visual gaps

Sebastian Vettel – 1’45.682

+0.450 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’46.132

+0.485 Daniil Kvyat – 1’46.167

+0.677 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’46.359

+1.120 Lewis Hamilton – 1’46.802

+1.541 Nico Rosberg – 1’47.223

+1.555 Fernando Alonso – 1’47.237

+1.619 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’47.301

+1.782 Max Verstappen – 1’47.464

+1.886 Marcus Ericsson – 1’47.568

+1.905 Valtteri Bottas – 1’47.587

+1.958 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’47.640

+2.033 Jenson Button – 1’47.715

+2.051 Felipe Massa – 1’47.733

+2.135 Pastor Maldonado – 1’47.817

+2.320 Sergio Perez – 1’48.002

+2.434 Romain Grosjean – 1’48.116

+3.250 Felipe Nasr – 1’48.932

+6.906 Alexander Rossi – 1’52.588

+9.611 Will Stevens – 1’55.293

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Sebastian VettelFerrari1’48.4941’46.4871’45.682-0.80569
2Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’48.7851’46.1811’46.132-0.04966
3Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’51.1881’46.1421’46.167+0.02560
4Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’48.3311’46.2561’46.359+0.10363
5Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’48.3141’46.4791’46.802+0.32372
6Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’50.1251’46.6591’48.002+1.34367
7Nico RosbergMercedes1’47.9951’46.7811’47.223+0.44277
8Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’50.1231’46.9591’47.237+0.27860
9Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’49.8541’47.2941’47.640+0.34671
10Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’50.0191’48.0121’47.301-0.71168
11Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’49.4661’47.4271’47.464+0.03765
12Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’50.8831’47.7951’47.568-0.22774
13Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’49.3801’48.1181’47.587-0.53167
14Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’51.0351’47.6841’47.733+0.04967
15Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’50.4551’47.8881’47.715-0.17362
16Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’50.1581’47.7551’48.932+1.17763
17Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’50.0681’50.0941’47.817-2.25166
18Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’50.3411’48.0961’48.116+0.0270
19Alexander RossiManor-Ferrari1’53.9181’56.7391’52.588-1.3352
20Will StevensManor-Ferrari1’53.9031’59.9321’55.293+1.3945

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

25 comments on “Flying Ferraris lead Red Bull and distant Mercedes”

  1. Its only FP3, but this looks like the most promising race weekend of the year. I think the conditions in Quali will be different and the Mercs will bounce back in slightly cooler conditions, but I definitely see a fight for pole position today between Seb, Lewis and Daniil.

    A Mclaren Honda got within a hundredth of a second of the Mercs! That must have been an absolutely stellar lap from Fernando

    1. Alonso has an incredible record here, top 4 in all seven Singapore Grand Prix. Maybd he can match it even in this awful Mclaren.

      1. and if he is not close he could always ask Jenson to have a shunt for him!!!

  2. Well, clearly the Ferrari & Renault engines are the best so we must lobby FIA to allow Mercedes extra tokens to catch up. In the spirit of competition naturally… :)

      1. I thought it was!

  3. Promising debut from Rossi until now. Let’s how he will do in the race.

  4. Is this the pecking order if all engines were equal ?

    1. This is a very extreme type of track. I can imagine teams targeting this race for points and will have track-specific parts. Mercedes perhaps thought they were far enough ahead that they could focus on other areas and still win.

      We’ll see what they can do over the next hour!

  5. Could we see our first non-Mercedes powered pole of the hybrid era?

  6. Great effort from Alonso and Vettel! Rosberg must be feeling concerned that a McLaren is one hundredth of a second behind.

  7. What a refreshing F1 weekend so far. Different order for once, no talk about Hamilton’s life, no talk about 10000+ grid demotions, no Pirelli complains. Enjoy it!

  8. AMuS says Merc teams are suffering from the new higher tyre pressure limit – most of them are among those who didn’t improve on their Friday times.

    It’s very strange – it’s not as if STR, Sauber, McLaren are getting much quicker compared to yesterday, but the Mercedes-powered teams are getting slower. Very strange.

    1. They’ll just turn up the wick, all Merc powered cars.

  9. The engine excuse is getting a bit tired. Yes, the Merc engine is the best, but no other team with a Mercedes engine has won a race in the new turbo era, while teams with Ferrari and Renault engines have. You need a good chassis too, and Mercedes have a fantastic package as a whole. It’s not just down to the engine.

    1. Looks like the Mercedes suffer from the warm weather and the softer rubber, or is it just my impression? Lets hope for the best for this race.

      1. Mercedes are usually struggling in warm conditions, like in Malaysia (both this and last year) and Hungary, the only two races they didn’t win this year so far. Maybe the Mercedes engine is more difficult to cool.

  10. All Mercedes cars will get faster in quali, don’t be surprised. It would be ridiculous if Merc were really a sec slower than Ferrari :D

  11. Carlos Furtado das Neves
    19th September 2015, 15:05

    One second??? No!!!
    1,5 seconds is Vettel ahead of Mercs.
    Sensational !!! 0,5 seconds from Ricciardo.
    “The Finger” is back!

Comments are closed.