» Bottas pips Hamilton in final practice

Valtteri Bottas has finished the Austrian Grand Prix’s final practice session fastest, becoming just the seventh different driver to top a session this year.

The Williams driver put in a time of 1:09.848, five one-hundredths of a second ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who split the Williams duo by finishing second-quickest. Felipe Massa was third-fastest.

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat took fourth position while Nico Rosberg finished in fifth.

Williams continue to impress and threat yet again to take their first podium of the year, after they’ve let a few opportunities slip through their hands.

However, there was speculation as to whether the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull were running heavier fuel loads, with the latter almost certain to have as Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel finished seventh and tenth respectively.

McLaren suffered a rough practice session as Jenson Button only completed three laps due to a failure in his engine braking. Fire in his right rear brakes meant that mechanics had to change the brake callipers as well as a damaged floor. Since Button didn’t get the chance to run on the super soft tyres today he will head into qualifying largely unprepared.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was ninth, while his team-mate Fernando Alonso was four tenths clear of him in sixth.

Due to the confusion and a few drivers being summoned to the Stewards room over the pit lane entry line, the line has been widened two meters to the left and now blends with the previous line at the corner.

Drivers were also warned that if they are to leave the track on the outside of Turn Eight their qualifying time will be deleted.

2014 Austrian Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 3 Results:

	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:09.848		22
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:09.898	+ 0.050	25
3.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:09.901	+ 0.053	21
4.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:09.927	+ 0.079	25
5.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:09.999	+ 0.151	31
6.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:10.054	+ 0.206	17
7.	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:10.392	+ 0.544	19
8.	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:10.449	+ 0.601	23
9.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:10.488	+ 0.640	22
10.	Sebastian Vettel	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:10.562	+ 0.714	21
11.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:10.683	+ 0.835	22
12.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:10.776	+ 0.928	26
13.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:11.043	+ 1.195	22
14.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:11.103	+ 1.255	22
15.	Sergio Pérez	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:11.235	+ 1.387	18
16.	Adrian Sutil	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:11.294	+ 1.446	24
17.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:11.558	+ 1.710	23
18.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:11.848	+ 2.000	21
19.	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:12.320	+ 2.472	23
20.	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:12.892	+ 3.044	27
21.	Max Chilton	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:12.915	+ 3.067	14
22.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:14.237	+ 4.389	4