Abu Dhabi – Free Practice 3: Rosberg takes the advantage over Hamilton before qualifying

It’s quite nice before the start of FP3 in Abu Dhabi – 27°C in the air and 46°C on the track, which doesn’t exactly match what the conditions will be like for tomorrow’s race, but the drivers still need to adapt to work at their best.

From the beginning of the session, Pastor Maldonado takes to the track at the wheel of his Lotus followed notably by the two Finnish drivers in the paddock, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen. Most of the drivers who take to the track complete one or two installation laps before returning to their respective pits, except Fernando Alonso who, on soft tires, sets the first timed lap of the session in 1:44.581 after 5 minutes. Shortly after, Kamui Kobayashi sets a time as well, followed by Gutierrez, Stevens, and Sutil.

After 10 minutes, Button sets his first timed lap and is 0.4 seconds off Fernando Alonso before Vergne overtakes him while Vettel marks a modest 1:51.333 as his first time. Gradually, the drivers start their stints on softs and set timed laps, and Vettel reserves everyone’s agreement with a 1:44.547 to temporarily take the top of the timesheets before Button does slightly better than the German.

After 15 minutes, a third of the drivers haven’t set a time yet: Bottas, Räikkönen, Massa, Rosberg, Magnussen, Hamilton, and Ricciardo, while the drivers on the track have completed an average of 6 laps so far. Ricciardo takes the 5th fastest time while Fernando Alonso reclaims the top position with the best times in all three sectors. The Spaniard sets a 1:42.653 on the super-softs, being the first to use them in this session.

After 20 minutes, the Williams drivers hit the track, with Massa setting the 2nd fastest time and Bottas the 3rd, three-tenths behind his teammate, quite far from Alonso, who set his time on super-softs. Räikkönen also started his timed lap count, as did the Mercedes drivers and Kevin Magnussen a few minutes later. Rosberg settles for the 4th fastest time, in a lap far from perfect while Lewis Hamilton takes the 3rd fastest time, between the two Williams, as Bottas improved in the meantime.

At mid-session, Fernando Alonso is still leading ahead of Bottas, Hamilton, Massa, and Rosberg. However, the Ferrari driver was equipped with super-softs during his best lap, whereas the other drivers used softs at the start of the session.

Still on soft tires, Rosberg recovers with a first lap of ups and downs. The Mercedes driver, battling for the title, does slightly better than Alonso by 18 thousandths to take the lead with a lap time of 1:42.635, while Lewis Hamilton also improves but doesn’t do better than 1:42.763, placing him 3rd.

On the Ferrari side, they are working on Fernando Alonso’s car, who is quietly sitting at the back of the garage without his racing suit. The Spaniard’s session already seems to be over with 28 minutes remaining and having only completed 8 laps.

Positions change little in the following minutes.

15 minutes before the end of the session, all the drivers are in the pits to slightly adjust their car settings, study their previous laps, and especially prepare for the final stints, with super-softs as expected, in preparation for the qualifying session.

After a few minutes of inactivity on the Yas Marina track, Felipe Massa broke the prevailing silence by taking to the track in his Williams FW36, equipped with super-soft tires. He was immediately followed by his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, Nico Rosberg, and the two Mexicans in the paddock, Esteban Gutierrez and Sergio Perez.

With only 10 minutes left, the rest of the pack gradually takes to the track – except for Alonso. With the softest tires provided by Pirelli, Massa improves his time with a lap of 1:42.429 – compared to 1:43.633 on soft tires – and logically takes the lead but not for long. Indeed, Nico Rosberg does better by a second than the Brazilian while Lewis Hamilton falls short by almost 6 tenths of Rosberg. Bottas, on the other hand, did not improve following a mistake in the last corner.

Many drivers are improving but with stints of two or three laps, the best might still be yet to come for most of the men on track. The majority of drivers are doing a lap to cool down the machinery after their first fast lap.

Lewis Hamilton thus sets off again to attack the stopwatch and the Briton improves with a time of 1:41.793 but falls short by just over 3 tenths behind his teammate, despite having posted the best times in the first two sectors.

As the checkered flag is waved, Nico Rosberg finishes at the top of the timesheet ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, and Jenson Button in 6th position.

Free Practice 3 Results of the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in Formula 1