Malaysia – Free Practice 3: Rosberg Comes Out of the Shadows

At the beginning of this third and final free practice session of the Malaysian Grand Prix, a light rain fell before the green flag: the drivers are therefore starting on Cinturato intermediate tires for their installation laps, and Michael Schumacher reports over the radio that there are perfectly dry sections, which should quickly encourage the drivers to switch to slick tires.

Moreover, it hasn’t rained enough to extinguish a fire that broke out before the session in the Lotus hospitality area. On track, the drivers don’t linger, probably to save wet weather tires in case of rain later in the weekend: « Now, we must wait for better conditions. The track is drying very quickly » Ferrari indicates on Twitter.

After twenty minutes of testing, Bruno Senna is the first to go out on slick (hard) tires and set an initial benchmark time of 1:43.721. The Brazilian is followed on the track by the Marussia drivers and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. However, it’s Romain Grosjean who is the first to dethrone the Williams driver with a time of 1:40.239, before the Brazilian reclaims his position with a 1:39.622.

As the track improves, the drivers continue to swap places at the top of the timesheets, with Vettel and Webber showing the nose of their RB8. Leading after the first two free practice sessions, Lewis Hamilton lets his McLaren slip in turn 13 and escapes the gravel trap before returning to his garage to check that nothing is damaged, particularly the brakes.

At the start of the last 20 minutes of the session, Pastor Maldonado takes the best time with 1:38.118. The Venezuelan is ahead of Webber, Pérez, Schumacher, Vettel, Grosjean, Kobayashi, Ricciardo, Räikkönen, and Button. But the hierarchy changes once again, with Sebastian Vettel putting the Red Bull back on top with 1:38.024. A few minutes later, Pastor Maldonado regains the advantage by recording the best time of the weekend with 1:37.455 on medium tires.

The drivers all go back out with the softest tires offered this weekend by Pirelli for the end of the session. Lewis Hamilton takes the opportunity to return to the track and finally set his first timed lap of the day: 1:37.776 for the Englishman, who temporarily sits in second place. Setting the best time in the second sector, Jenson Button ousts Pastor Maldonado by 51 thousandths before being himself ousted from the top of the timesheet by Webber, then Vettel, and finally Rosberg in 1:36.877.

Under the checkered flag, the German remains master of the clock and is ahead of Vettel, Webber, Räikkönen, and Grosjean. Once again, the Ferrari drivers are beyond the twelfth place while Ricciardo is ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Charles Pic narrowly precedes his teammate at Marussia, Timo Glock, by just over a tenth.

Free Practice 3 Results of the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix: