Hat-trick for Mercedes as Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in Free Practice Three

(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)

 

Mercedes once again showed that they continue to be the team to beat as Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the practice session ahead of this evening's session at the Sakhir circuit. Hamilton's fastest time was a 1m 35.324s just 0.115s quicker then team mate Nico Rosberg.

 

Sergio Perez was the surprise of the morning as the Mexican set the third fastest time for the Sahara Force India F1 Team just 0.544s behind Lewis Hamilton. The Williams Martini Racing pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were 4th and 5th while Jenson Button was 6th for McLaren, making it an all Mercedes powered top 6.

 

Fernando Alonso was 7th for Ferrari with Nico Hulkenberg 8th in the second Force India. Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat continues to impress as the Russian rookie finished the session in 9th place just ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen who rounded out the top ten. The F14T looks a little bit better in relation to the handling but we will see where the Italian team end up in qualifying.

 

Kevin Magnussen was 11th fastest for McLaren 1.4s off the pace set by Lewis Hamilton. Magnussen has been another driver who has impressed so far this season during his debut year for the Woking based team. Jean Eric Vergne was 12th fastest, finishing ahead of both Red Bull's. Daniel Ricciardo ended the session in 13th place while Sebastian Vettel ended his session early thanks to an off track incident which resulted in his RB10 getting beached in the gravel.

 

Esteban Gutierrez beat his Sauber team mate Adrian Sutil as the pair finished 14th and 15th for the Swiss based team. It was a great session for the Caterham of Kamui Kobayashi as he finished the session in 16th place just 3 tenths of a second off the Sauber which is an extremely encouraging sign for the Leafield based team.

 

Jules Bianchi finished the session in 17th place and was the leading Marussia. The Frenchman was finished just ahead of Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus. The Enstone outfit suffered another terrible morning as Romain Grosjean finished the session down in 20th place. The Frenchman said this morning that the team 'are not where they want to be'

 

Marcus Ericsson ended the session between the two Lotus car's in 19th place. Following his off Sebastian Vettel was 21st. It was a disappointing session for the German as he failed to run the Pirelli Soft tyre ahead of qualifying.

 

Max Chilton rounded out the timesheets in 22nd place. Qualifying gets underway at 4PM (Irish time)

under lights.

 

©Ben Johnston 2014