Kimi Räikkönen and Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel have once again showed that the Italian team will threaten for pole position after claiming a 1-2 in final practice for the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix.
After Mercedes seemingly dominated both Friday practice sessions with their own 1-2 performances, it was the turn of the red cars to move to the top of the timesheets.
This time it was 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen who claimed overall honours. The Finn clocked the fastest lap of the weekend so far – an expected result given the FIA’s decision to lengthen the DRS zone along the pit straight – with his 1:20.214 time on Pirelli’s Soft tyres edging out Vettel by just under a quarter of a second.
Once again, it wasn’t a completely incident-free session for the Italian team, with Vettel suffering another stoppage when his team detected a telemetry issue while the German was in the pit lane.
Third-fastest went to Friday pace-setter Lewis Hamilton, who completed the bulk of the Mercedes team’s running. Teammate Valtteri Bottas was fourth-quickest, managing just seven laps in the session after his mechanics were forced to fix a water leak his team had detected while making repairs to his Mercedes power unit’s electrics.
That necessitated a last-minute switch to his initial, older power unit, however he was therefore held up getting onto the track during the session.
Red Bull Racing maintained its ‘best of the rest’ mantle by locking out fifth and sixth places on the timesheets, with defending Spanish Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen edging teammate Daniel Ricciardo. The duo was still 0.8 seconds and a full second off the leading pace, however.
Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg hustled his RS17 into an encouraging seventh place to finish atop the tight midfield battle, ahead of Williams’ Felipe Massa and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr.
Crowd favourite Fernando Alonso put in a majestic late effort to haul his McLaren Honda MCL32 into the top-ten, some seven-tenths of a second quicker than teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, who only managed to outpace Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein in the final reckoning.
The Haas F1 Team brought in a second new floor design to install on Romain Grosjean’s car, and the Frenchman put his first mileage with the car’s new underbody aerodynamics to good use by going eleventh-fastest. Teammate Kevin Magnussen – who has run the floor design all weekend – was one-tenth of a second behind in twelfth place.
The Force India duo of Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon were thirteenth and fourteenth-fastest, ahead of the second Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat.
Marcus Ericsson continued to lead the Sauber team’s charge with an encouraging sixteenth place, edging out Williams rookie Lance Stroll and Renault’s Jolyon Palmer.
Marcus Ericsson again led Sauber’s charge in 16th, in front of Williams rookie Lance Stroll, who reported poor grip, Renault’s Jolyon Palmer and the aforementioned Vandoorne.
Saturday’s qualifying session in Barcelona will begin at 14:00 local time (GMT +2).
FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA PIRELLI 2017 – FREE PRACTICE 3 RESULTS | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Driver | Team / Entry | Time | Tyre | Laps | ||
1. | Kimi Räikkönen | ![]() |
Scuderia Ferrari SF70H | 1:20.214 | ![]() |
20 |
2. | Sebastian Vettel | ![]() |
Scuderia Ferrari SF70H | 1:20.456 | ![]() |
7 |
3. | Lewis Hamilton | ![]() |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W08 | 1:20.595 | ![]() |
12 |
4. | Valtteri Bottas | ![]() |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W08 | 1:20.868 | ![]() |
7 |
5. | Max Verstappen | ![]() |
Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB13 | 1:21.025 | ![]() |
14 |
6. | Daniel Ricciardo | ![]() |
Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB13 | 1:21.249 | ![]() |
15 |
7. | Nico Hulkenberg | ![]() |
Renault Sport F1 Team RS17 | 1:21.670 | ![]() |
13 |
8. | Felipe Massa | ![]() |
Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW40 | 1:21.746 | ![]() |
19 |
9. | Carlos Sainz Jr | ![]() |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR12 | 1:21.835 | ![]() |
19 |
10. | Fernando Alonso | ![]() |
McLaren-Honda MCL32 | 1:22.093 | ![]() |
16 |
11. | Romain Grosjean | ![]() |
Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-17 | 1:22.128 | ![]() |
21 |
12. | Kevin Magnussen | ![]() |
Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-17 | 1:22.214 | ![]() |
12 |
13. | Sergio Pérez | ![]() |
Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM10 | 1:22.237 | ![]() |
19 |
14. | Esteban Ocon | ![]() |
Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM10 | 1:22.297 | ![]() |
22 |
15. | Daniil Kvyat | ![]() |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR12 | 1:22.391 | ![]() |
15 |
16. | Marcus Ericsson | ![]() |
Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C36 | 1:22.513 | ![]() |
20 |
17. | Lance Stroll | ![]() |
Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW40 | 1:22.574 | ![]() |
19 |
18. | Jolyon Palmer | ![]() |
Renault Sport F1 Team RS17 | 1:22.755 | ![]() |
13 |
19. | Stoffel Vandoorne | ![]() |
McLaren-Honda MCL32 | 1:22.853 | ![]() |
15 |
20. | Pascal Wehrlein | ![]() |
Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C36 | 1:22.974 | ![]() |
19 |
Image via Scuderia Ferrari
Richard Bailey
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