Saturday, 4 October 2014

Rosberg leads the way in FP3 as Vettel, Hamilton and Raikkonen encounter issues

(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)

Mercedes Nico Rosberg set the fastest time in the final practice session ahead of tomorrow afternoon's Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit. The German's fastest time was a 1m 33.228s. He completed 14 laps. Lewis Hamilton was second fastest for Mercedes despite a heavy crash towards the end of the session. 

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was third fastest while the Williams Martini Racing Team did a fantastic job this morning with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finishing the session in fourth and fifth place respectively. 

Daniel Ricciardo was 6th fastest in the first of the Infiniti Red Bull Racing RB10 cars while McLaren's Kevin Magnussen was 7th fastest for the Woking based outfit. Jean Eric Vergne once again showed great pace with Toro Rosso setting the eighth fastest time. New Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver Daniil Kvyat was 9th fastest for the Toro Rosso team while Jenson Button rounded out the top ten.

Sahara Force India's Nico Hulkenberg was eleventh fastest just ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen who under went a 'precautionary power unit change' that will not result in a penalty for the Finn, Sergio Perez was 13th fastest in the second Sahara Force India while the Sauber F1 Team's Esteban Guiterrez was 14th fastest. 

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel was 15th fastest completing just 6 laps following an issue with his RB10.

The Lotus F1 Team's Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado finished the session in 16th and 17th place for the Enstone outfit while Adrian Sutil was 18th fastest for the Sauber F1 Team. Marcus Ericsson was 19th fastest for the Caterham F1 Team finishing the session just ahead of the Marussia F1 Team's Max Chilton. Jules Bianchi was 21st in the Marussia while Kamui Kobayashi was 22nd in the second Caterham.

© Ben Johnston 2014

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